iSif/BJKfei 


irTTtt 


THE  PILGRIMS  AND  THEIR  HISTORY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •   BOSTON  •   CHICAGO   •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •  BOMBAY   •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE 

PILGRIMS 

AND  THEIR 

HISTORY. 


BY 

ROLAND  G.  USHER,  Ph.  D. 

Professor  of  History,  Washington  University,  St.  Louis. 

Author  of  the  Reconstruction  of  the  English 

Church,  Pan-Germanism,  Etc. 


NEW    YORK, 

Published  by  The  Macmillan  Company , 
igi8. 

AU  rights  reserved. 


*  V 


Copyright,  1918 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  September,  1918. 


HENRY  MOrtSC  STg-PHEHff 


*    I 


xr. 


TO  HER 

WHOSE  STEADFAST  AFFECTION 

HAS  STRENGTHENED  AND  INSPIRED  ME 

WHOSE  HIGH  IDEALS  HAVE 

UPLIFTED  AND  GUIDED  ME 

MY  MOTHER 


509828 


PREFACE 

I  have  attempted  a  new  study  of  the  Pilgrims  and  their 
history  from  the  sources.  While  I  was  unable  to  find 
much  new  evidence  of  prime  importance,  I  have  perhaps 
been  able  to  exclude  from  further  consideration  the 
possibility  of  ascertaining  information  about  the  Pilgrims 
from  the  evidence  concerning  the  Puritan  Movement  in 
England  from  1580  to  16 10,  and  from  that  regarding  the 
history  of  the  Established  Church  for  the  same  period. 
But  I  have  been  able  to  place  the  older  material  about 
the  Pilgrims  in  its  relation  to  the  more  recent  evidence 
concerning  English  church  history,  and  have  as  well 
utilized  for  the  first  time  the  Plymouth  First  Church 
records  and  many  Plymouth  wills,  which  contain  much 
of  great  value  on  economic  and  social  history.  No  further 
accession  of  evidence  is  now  probable  and  it  is  therefore 
an  important  fact,  though  due  to  no  merit  of  mine,  that 
the  narrative  presented  in  these  pages  possesses  a  certain 
aspect  of  finality.  A  new  study  of  old  evidence  and  the 
use  of  some  new  material  has  made  possible  certain 
differences  in  interpretation,  in  emphasis,  and  in  judg- 
ment, the  importance  of  which  must  not  be  unduly 
exaggerated.  I  have  felt  it  possible  to  show  that  the 
Pilgrims  were  not  subject  to  active  persecution  in  Eng- 
land from  Church  or  State;  that  Robinson's  Congrega- 
tion at  Leyden  was  considerably  smaller  than  most 
students  have  estimated;  and  that  the  really  significant 
achievement  was  not  the  emigration  itself,  but  the 
economic  success  of  the  years  1621  to  1627.  Indeed,  the 
Plymouth  wills  make  it  now  possible  to  claim  that  the 


viii  Preface 

colony  was  an  economic  success  in  the  literal  sense  of  the 
word  and  that  poverty  and  hardship  did  not  continue  at 
Plymouth  as  long  as  has  not  infrequently  been  implied. 
It  has  also  been  possible  to  define  rather  more  exactly  the 
relation  of  the  Pilgrim  Church  to  the  Puritans  in  England 
and  to  other  Protestant  Sects  in  New  England. 

At  the  same  time,  perhaps  the  chief  excuse  for  this 
volume  lies  in  the  lack  hitherto  of  a  consistent  attempt 
to  present  the  story  as  a  whole,  with  serious  attention  to 
proportion,  emphasis,  and  perspective.  Such  valuable 
books  as  those  of  Dexter,  Arber,  or  Ames  have  empha- 
sized only  one  period  or  one  aspect  of  the  story,  while  in 
other  books  the  genealogical  information  has  fairly 
dwarfed  the  narrative.  I  have  therefore  sought  to  treat 
each  section  of  the  narrative  adequately,  and  in  particular 
to  devote  considerable  space  to  the  period  after  1627, 
partly  because  the  heritage  of  most  importance  to  us 
seems  to  be  that  of  this  particular  period,  and  partly 
because  comparatively  little  attention  has  hitherto  been 
paid  to  it.  While  our  genealogical  information  about 
the  Pilgrims'  immediate  descendants  is  vast  in  bulk  and 
frequently  entertaining  and  vital,  I  have  felt  it  important 
to  emphasize  the  political  narrative  and  to  subordinate 
all  genealogical  detail. 

The  conclusions  of  most  importance  are  frequently  to 
be  reached  only  by  elaborate  inference  and  deduction 
from  indirect  evidence  and  are  sometimes  in  the  end  no 
better  than  presumptions  and  probabilities  resting  upon  a 
lengthy  process  of  conjecture.  To  attempt  to  give,  even 
in  important  instances,  the  whole  train  of  logic  and  the 
evidence  on  which  it  is  based,  is  to  create  a  critical 
apparatus  of  quotations,  references,  and  speculations 
wearisome  and  vexatious  to  the  general  reader  and  not 


Preface  ix 

really  necessary  for  critical  students.  In  such  a  mass  of 
inference,  the  Pilgrims  and  their  history  have  sometimes 
been  lost  to  sight.  It  has  become  increasingly  common  in 
books  on  the  Pilgrims  to  reproduce  as  many  of  the  old 
abbreviations  and  contractions  as  can  be  provided  in 
modern  type  with  the  result  that  a  familiar  and  simple 
idea  is  presented  to  the  reader  in  such  strange  guise  that 
he  fails  to  recognize  it.  Nor  does  such  meticulous  accu- 
racy serve  any  real  purpose.  I  am  not  aware  of  any 
passage  the  meaning  of  which  is  in  doubt  or  from  which 
additional  information  can  thus  be  extracted.  Fre- 
quently, too,  such  reproductions  raise  in  the  minds  of 
readers  unskilled  in  research  a  presumption  of  a  critical 
judgment  and  of  an  extent  of  information  in  the  author 
which  are  not  always  realized.  I  have  preferred  to 
subordinate  the  critical  apparatus  to  the  narrative 
proper  and  to  reproduce  in  citations  what  Bradford  or 
others  would  have  had  printed  rather  than  exactly  what 
they  wrote. 

This  is  the  fifth  in  a  series  of  related  monographs  which 
I  am  attempting  to  write  on  the  constitutional  and  ad- 
ministrative history  of  the  Tudor  and  Stuart  periods  in 
England.  This  particular  volume,  though  not  without 
relation  to  my  previous  books,  the  Reconstruction  of  the 
English  Church  and  the  High  Commission,  is  primarily  a 
part  of  the  treatment  of  the  period  between  1610  and 
1640,  upon  which  my  studies  have  already  been  pros- 
ecuted at  considerable  length,  but  on  which  as  yet  noth- 
ing has  been  published,  partly  because  the  war  has 
temporarily  suspended  access  to  the  English  archives,  and 
partly  because  it  has  also  made  difficult  the  publication 
of  technical  books  which  appeal  only  to  a  very  limited 
number  of  readers.    I  am  venturing  thus  to  call  attention 


x  Preface 

to  my  continued  interest  in  Stuart  history  because  the 
character  of  the  research  itself,  aside  from  fortuitous 
interference,  may  require  some  years  of  work  still  before 
the  more  important  volumes  can  be  finished. 

I  have  already  made  repeated  acknowledgments  in 
my  previous  books  of  my  indebtedness  to  many  foreign 
scholars  and  archivists,  but  I  cannot  close  this  preface 
without  acknowledging  once  more,  in  this  of  all  books, 
the  influence  upon  me  as  a  student  of  Edward  Channing. 
To  no  single  man,  out  of  many  in  Europe  or  America  to 
whom  my  indebtedness  is  great,  do  I  owe  so  much. 

Roland  G.  Usher. 

Washington  University, 
Easter,  191 8. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

i.  scrooby  and  austerfield i 

II.  The  Exodus  from  England 17 

III.  The  Hardness  of  Life  in  Holland 33 

IV.  The  Critical  Decision 45 

V.  Ways  and  Means 56 

VI.  The  Voyage 68 

VII.  The  First  Year 83 

VIII.  The  Problem  of  Subsistence 94 

IX.  Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence no 

X.  The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan 127 

XI.  The  Year  of  Deliverance — 1627 142 

XII.  The  Great  Achievement 157 

XIII.  New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  1627-1657 168 

XIV.  The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth 183 

XV.  Government  and  Administration,  1627-1657 202 

XVI.  Economic  Privilege,  1627-1657 220 

XVII.  Social  Life,  1627-1657 239 

XVIII.  Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford 256 

XIX.  The  Loss  of  Political  Independence 275 

Appendix 293 

Index 3°5 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Manor  House  at  Scrooby Frontispiece 

Map  of  the  Scrooby  Region Facing  page      6 

Portion  of  Capt.  John  Smith's  Map  of  New 
England,  1614 "        "       48 

Contemporary  Cut  of  Ships  of  the  May- 
flower Type "        "        64 

The  Mayflower  Compact:  from  Bradford's 
History "        "        74 

Elizabeth  Paddy  Wensley "        "      176 

Madame  Padishal "        "      250 

Edward  Winslow.   Painted  in  London  in  1 651    "       "       256 


THE  PILGRIMS  AND  THEIR  HISTORY 


THE    PILGRIMS    AND    THEIR 
HISTORY 

CHAPTER  I 

SCROOBY  AND  AUSTERFIELD 

In  the  autumn  of  x£oj5,  about  fifty  or  sixty  men  and 
women  began  to  gather  weekly  for  devotional  exercises 
in  the  chapel  of  an  old  Manor  House  at  Scrooby,  in 
northern  England,  about  forty-five  miles  south  of  the 
city  of  York.  They  thanked  God  that  they  had  been 
vouchsafed  a  glimpse  of  the  true  Light  and  walked 
no  longer  in  darkness;  that  they  were  separated  from 
that  abomination  of  Anti-Christ,  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. They  assured  each  other  of  their  ability  and 
willingness  to  bear  with  all  fortitude  the  persecution 
and  travail  sure  to  be  entailed  by  this  obedience  to 
"the  Ordinances  of  God."  There  were  among  them 
none  of  wealth,  birth,  or  learning  as  those  words  were 
then  or  are  now  used;  they  professed  religious  ideas 
maintained  by  a  few  hundreds  at  most  in  the  British 
Isles,  if  not  in  the  world;  they  lived  in  a  part  of  Eng- 
land not  then  considered  important;  they  were  simple 
farmers,  tilling  the  open  fields  of  an  old  hunting  park, 
between  moors  and  fens  alive  with  game.  Their  little 
assembly  was  too  insignificant  to  attract  the  attention 
of  the  Puritans  in  southern  England  or  to  rouse  the 
officials  of  the  Established  Church  to  more  than  a 
spasmodic  and  perfunctory  hostility.     But  they  took 


2  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

courage  from  the  words  in  Ecclesiastes :  "the  race  is 
not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong,  neither 
yet  bread  to  the  wise,  nor  yet  riches  to  men  of  under- 
standing, nor  yet  favor  to  men  of  skill;  but  time  and 
chance  happeneth  to  them  all."  And  they  were  right. 
Among  them  were  the  leaders  of  a  mighty  movement — 
the  emigration  of  Englishmen  to  the  New  World  in 
search  of  homes.  They  were  the  true  progenitors  of 
the  westward  march  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  a  group 
of  men  and  women  worthy  of  becoming  the  ancestors 
of  a  virile  nation  of  one  hundred  millions  of  souls. 

The  spiritual  origin  of  the  Pilgrim  movement  *  lay 
in  the  impulse  toward  freedom  of  thought  which  was 
itself  the  root  of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  The 
historical  and  literary  study  of  antiquity,  the  new 
knowledge  of  the  classic  languages,  the  new  texts  of 
the  Scriptures  proved  to  Lutherans  and  Calvinists 
that  the^iPapacy  of  152 1,  its  hierarchy  and  usages,  was 
not  warranted  by  the  Scriptures.  Christianity  had 
been  defiled,  its  pristine  purity  sullied  by  the  introduc- 
tion through  the  agency  of  the  Popes  of  pagan  ritual 
and  ceremony.  The  task  of  the  reformers  was  clear: 
to  reject  the  innovations  of  the  Pope,  to  abjure  him  as 

1  "As  applied  specifically  to  the  early  settlers  at  Plymouth, 
Pilgrim  first  appeared  in  1798  and  Pilgrim  Fathers  in  1799." 
Bradford  and  others  had  used  the  word  pilgrim,  but  not  as  a 
generic  historical  designation.  From  about  1800  till  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  term  was  applied  indiscriminately 
to  all  early  New  England  settlers,  but  was  then  by  more  critical 
students  limited  to  Plymouth  colonists.  This  usage  of  the  term 
Pilgrim  has  been  consistent  for  not  more  than  forty  years.  See 
interesting  information  on  this  point  collected  by  Albert  Mat- 
thews in  Publications  of  the  Colonial  Society  of  Mass.,  XVII, 
293-392. 


Scrooby  and  Austet 'field  3 

the  Man  of  Wrath,  and  to  establish  once  more  on 
earth  in  all  its  pristine  purity  the  primitive  Church  of 
Christ.  In  convincing  their  own  followers  of  the  verity 
of  this  great  discovery,  they  found  the  most  cogent 
evidence  in  the  Scriptures  themselves.  Read  the  Bible, 
they  besought  the  men  of  their  own  time.  Read  and 
see  that  there  is  nowhere  mention  of  Pope  or  hierarchy, 
of  this  ceremony  or  that  practice,  of  copes  or  indul- 
gences. Read  and  see  that  we  are  right  and  that  the 
Pope  is  wrong  and  a  usurper,  the  untrustworthy  serv- 
ant in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  who  shall  be  thrown  out 
by  the  servants  when  the  Lord  shall  come. 

It  became,  however,  speedily  necessary  that  the  re- 
formers themselves  should  define  with  some  precision 
what  form  of  discipline  and  doctrine  Christ  had  insti- 
tuted. Once  this  definition  had  been  promulgated,  once 
Calvin,  Luther,  and  Zwingli,  Knox,  Cranmer,  and 
Whitgift  had  made  up  their  minds,  they  becan.  3  one  and 
all  convinced  that  the  Scriptures  could  be  understood 
only  by  those  to  whom  God  had  vouchsafed  the  truth. 
Accordingly,  the  new  reformed  organizations  insisted 
upon  a  conformity  with  their  own  particular  practice  and 
belief  no  less  rigid  than  that  against  which  they  protested, 
and  each  expelled  from  its  ranks  without  mercy  or  hesita- 
tion those  who  ventured  to  differ  from  it  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  primitive  Christianity.  In  England  the  peculiar 
circumstances  under  which  the  Reformation  was  begun, 
the  character  of  Henry  VIII  and  of  his  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth, the  peculiar  temperament  of  the  English  people, 
resulted  in  a  compromise  between  the  old  forms  and  the 
new  platform.  After  a  good  deal  of  hesitation,  a  few 
sweeping  changes  in  doctrine  and  discipline  were  affirmed, 
but,  while  many  of  the  observances  of  the  Roman 


4  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Catholic  Church  were  definitively  abandoned,  in  out- 
ward appearance  the  old  service  and  the  old  discipline 
still  predominated  in  the  observances  of  the  Established 
Church  of  Elizabeth.  The  Pope  was  expelled  but  the 
hierarchy  remained. 

The  little  group  of  people,  who  separated  from  the 
Established  Church  with  such  consecration  and  serious- 
ness in  the  autumn  of  1606,  had  thoroughly  grasped  the 
injunction  of  the  reformers  to  read  the  Scriptures  for 
themselves.  Their  strong  and  practical  minds  quickly 
appreciated  the  inconsistency  of  a  liberty  of  thought 
and  expression  which  permitted  the  laity  to  find  in  the 
Scriptures  only  the  material  they  were  told  was  there, 
and  which  denominated  all  further  examination  into  the 
truth  as  "  unholy  prying."  They  opened  their  eyes  and 
saw  in  the  Bible  proof  that  the  Church  was  not  yet 
purified,  that  the  reformers  were  no  more  infallible  in 
their  interpretation  of  Scripture,  no  more  consistent  in 
practice,  nor  more  liberal  in  attitude  than  the  "  Bishop  of 
Rome"  whom  they  rejected  with  such  determination. 
The  Reformation  had  not  been  thorough,  the  Pope  him- 
self had  been  abjured  but  not  his  "  detestable  enormities." 
They  found  in  the  Scripture  no  more  warrant  for  the 
bishops  and  deans  of  the  English  Established  Church 
than  for  the  Pope  and  his  cardinals.  They  saw  no  more 
proof  in  the  New  Testament  of  the  validity  of  a  prayer- 
book  and  canons  than  they  found  for  the  mass  and 
indulgences. 

Scrooby  was  hardly  a  favorable  environment  for  so 
radical  a  Protestant  movement.  Situated  about  forty- 
five  miles  south  of  the  city  of  York  and  about  fifty  miles 
north  of  Lincoln,  along  the  great  highway  leading  from 
London  to  Edinburgh,  within  easy  ride  of  the  old  Sher- 


Scrooby  and  Auster field  5 

wood  Forest  long  connected  by  legend  with  Robin  Hood, 
there  lay  to  the  north  and  west  of  Scrooby  great  districts 
in  which  the  Roman  Catholics  were  at  the  time  of 
Elizabeth's  death  in  the  overwhelming  majority.  In  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  Scrooby  were  powerful  Catholic 
families.  From  this  district  had  come  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace  and  the  Rising  of  the  North.  From  it  the  leaders 
of  the  Bye  Plot  had  confidently  expected  support  and  it 
was  not  yet  certain  in  1605  that  the  fears  of  a  Catholic 
rising  were  entirely  groundless.  Indeed,  the  Protestants 
in  the  North  of  all  descriptions  had  commonly  preferred 
to  bury  their  own  differences  and  present  a  determined 
front  to  the  Catholic  majority  who  had  not  yet  accepted 
the  fact  of  the  Reformation. 

About  Scrooby  we  know  a  great  deal,  thanks  to  its 
location  upon  the  great  highway  between  London  and 
Edinburgh.1  The  officials  who  collected  the  information 
for  Domesday  Book  recorded  its  existence  as  a  part  of 
the  property  of  the  Archbishopric  of  York,  but  it  was  not 
in  1606  and  indeed  never  had  been  since  the  Norman 
Conquest  an  agricultural  or  industrial  district  in  any 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  It  was  in  fact  a  hunting  lodge, 
located  upon  a  tongue  of  fenny  land,  thrown  out  in  the 
midst  of  the  moors,  broad  lakes,  and  swamps  of  the  lower 
Trent  valley.  It  was  also  a  sort  of  halfway-house  used  by 
official  travelers,  north  and  south,  and  an  occasional 
residence  of  the  Archbishop  of  York  or  his  officials  when 
occupied  with  affairs  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Province. 
A  good  many  notables,  first  and  last,  slept  there  from  the 
Conquest  down  to  the  time  when  Margaret  Tudor  paused 
overnight  on  her  journey  north  to  marry  James  IV, 
from  which  marriage  was  to  spring  the  union  of  England 
1  See  the  notes  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter. 


6  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

and  Scotland.  In  the  early  sixteenth  century  there  was 
a  good  deal  of  hunting  at  Scrooby.  Wolsey  himself 
spent  a  whole  month  in  the  house.  The  custom  had  been 
for  the  Archbishop  to  travel  with  his  servants,  furniture, 
linen,  and  plate  and  set  up  for  a  time  his  establishment  in 
the  great  Manor  House,  and,  when  His  Grace  pleased,  he 
departed  bag  and  baggage  and  left  the  empty  house  and 
its  outbuildings  in  the  care  of  a  Receiver  or  Bailiff. 

The  population  at  Scrooby  consisted  therefore  of  the 
small  tenant  farmers  and  their  laborers,  connected  more 
or  less  immediately  with  this  estate  of  the  archbishops, 
and  living  around  the  Manor  House,  subject  in  civil  as 
well  as  in  economic  matters  to  the  authority  of  the 
Archiepiscopal  Receiver  or  Bailiff.  There  was  of  course 
no  leisured  class;  men  of  any  education  at  all  were  few; 
and  the  little  district  boasted  no  residents  of  wealth, 
birth,  or  station.  '  For  all  that  it  was  a  place  of  some 
consequence  and  of  considerable  size.  Leland,  the 
official  historian  of  Henry  VIII,  found  at  Scrooby  a  great 
house  of  two  courts,  built  of  timber  and  brick,  standing 
on  a  plot  of  some  six  or  seven  acres,  the  whole  surrounded 
by  a  deep  moat,  As  the  years  elapsed,  the  Manor  House 
fell  into  decay,  perhaps  because  the  game  became  less 
abundant  and  the  House  less  used;  toward  the  middle  of 
the  century  the  number  of  buildings  were  certainly 
fewer;  and,  when  James  I  on  his  progress  to  London  in 
1603  noted  it  as  a  useful  hunting  lodge,  he  also  remarked 
upon  its  "exceeding  decay." 

There  is  today  little  left  at  Scrooby  to  tell  of  these 
times.  Except  for  the  slender  gray  spire  of  St.  Wilfred's 
Church  and  a  few  parts  of  the  present  stone  farmhouse, 
there  is  nothing  left  which  the  eyes  of  Brewster  or  Brad- 
ford might  have  seen  of  the  great  estate  on  which  Wolsey 


MAP   OF   THE    SCROOBY   REGION 


Scrooby  and  Austerfield  7 

amused  himself  and  which  Elizabeth  and  James  I 
coveted.  The  very  earth  is  different.  The  moors  and 
fens  have  been  drained  and  ploughed;  the  game  has 
departed,  leaving  only  the  lark  and  the  cuckoo  behind; 
the  tangled  thickets  are  now  waving  fields  of  grain,  dotted 
by  scarlet  poppies  and  fringed  with  hawthorn,  wild  roses, 
and  honeysuckle.  Here  and  there  only  is  an  untamed 
spot,  where  the  brilliant  yellow  of  the  gorse  against  the 
dark  green  of  its  own  foliage  gives  us  a  suggestion  of  the 
sort  of  landscape  the  first  Pilgrims  left  behind  them. 
In  this  town  of  Scrooby,  there  had  come  to  live  about 
157 1  a  certain  William  Brewster  and  his  wife,  with  a 
small  son  some  five  years  old.  About  him  we  know  noth- 
ing prior  to  his  appointment  by  Archbishop  Grindal  in 
1575  to  the  office  of  Receiver  and  Bailiff  of  the  Manor  of 
Scrooby  and  "all  liberties  of  the  same  in  the  County  of 
Nottingham. "  He  became  not  only  the  Archbishop's 
agent  in  the  management  of  his  farms  and  in  the  collec- 
tion of  rents,  but  also  the  civil  authority,  for  this  par- 
ticular district  was  legally  and  administratively  exempt 
from  the  County  of  Nottingham.  He  must  also  have 
exercised  such  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  as  there  was 
when  the  Archbishop  and  his  commissaries  were  not 
themselves  present.  Some  seventeen  little  groups  of 
people  in  villages  lived  on  the  large  domain  and  of  them 
his  position  made  him  practical  ruler.  Although  Grindal 
agreed  to  pay  him  only  £3  6s.  8d.  in  money  a  year,  the 
position  was  calculated  to  be  worth  not  less  than  £170  a 
year,  the  equivalent  today  of  about  $4000.  In  1588,  this 
William  Brewster  was  appointed  Postmaster  under  the 
Crown;  Scrooby  was  made  a  posthouse  on  the  road  to 
York  and  it  became  his  duty  to  provide  horses  for  the 
Queen's  messengers,  and  such  privileged  travellers  as 


8  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

rode  post,  and  to  keep  an  inn  where  they  might  remain 
until  it  became  convenient  to  pursue  their  journey. 

It  is  obvious  therefore  that  the  father  of  the  famous 
William  Brewster  was  a  man  of  some  substance  and 
position,  easily  the  most  prominent  individual  in  the 
little  village  and  its  immediate  environment.  The  boy 
tasted  somewhat  of  this  modest  affluence,  was  prepared 
somehow  or  other  for  the  University,  and  matriculated  at 
the  college  of  Peterhouse  at  Cambridge  in  December, 
1580.  He  began  residence  at  the  great  Puritan  Univer- 
sity of  England,  although  not  at  its  most  radical  college 
nor  under  the  instruction  of  the  most  erudite  and  mag- 
netic of  Puritan  teachers.  But  its  atmosphere  was 
electric  at  just  this  time  with  radical  tendencies.  Peter 
Baro,  eminent  as  a  Calvinist,  was  Professor  of  Divinity; 
William  Perkins,  whose  books  Brewster  later  owned,  was 
lecturing  at  this  time;  and  at  least  four  notable  Puritans 
and  Separatists  were  in  residence — Udall,  Penry,  Green- 
wood, and  George  Johnson.  There  is  no  record  that 
Brewster  ever  received  a  degree  and  it  is  indeed  not  clear 
whether  he  remained  at  the  University  two  years  or  only 
a  few  months.  We  do  know  from  Bradford  l  that  he 
achieved  there  a  firm  knowledge  of  Latin  and  "some 
insight  into  Greek,"  that  he  there  became  inoculated  with 
radical  religious  ideas,  and  was  "  first  seasoned  with  the 
seeds  of  grace  and  vertue."  This  probably  denotes 
Brewster's  own  belief  that  his  radical  views  originated  in 
Cambridge.  The  autumn  of  1583,  however,  saw  him  in 
London  as  a  member  of  the  household  of  William  Davi- 
son, at  this  time  a  man  of  some  consequence  at  Court, 
serving  in  various  administrative  and  diplomatic  capac- 
ities. How  Brewster  became  connected  with  him, 
1  See  the  note  at  the  end  of  the  chapter  on  the  Bradford  History. 


Scrooby  and  Auster field  9 

exactly  in  what  capacity  he  "served"  him,  we  do  not 
know.  Bradford  is  our  only  informant,  and,  while  he 
makes  it  clear  that  the  relationship  was  close,  he  does 
not  show  good  reason  to  suppose  that  Brewster  was 
anything  more  than  a  sort  of  confidential  attendant, 
something  better  than  a  valet  but  a  good  deal  less  im- 
portant than  a  secretary,  a  position  which,  if  not  menial, 
could  hardly  be  called  official.  Certainly,  he  won 
Davison's  confidence  and  demonstrated  a  certain  ability. 
How  closely  he  followed  his  patron  in  his  many  expedi- 
tions and  journeys  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 

He  must  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  England  and  Scot- 
land, something  of  court  life,  much  of  London,  and 
certainly  accompanied  Davison  on  one  or  more  of  his 
important  diplomatic  missions  to  the  Netherlands  in 
1584  and  1585-86.  Bradford  alludes  in  an  account 
written  half  a  century  later  to  a  long  ride  across  the 
Eastern  Counties  on  the  way  back  from  Holland,  when 
Davison  placed  around  Brewster's  neck  the  great  gold 
chain  presented  to  the  Ambassador  by  the  States  Gen- 
eral, and  bade  him  wear  it  as  they  fared  on  towards 
London.  Undoubtedly,  this  was  one  of  the  few  incidents 
of  that  time  which  stuck  clearly  in  Brewster's  own 
memory,  and  which  he  told  and  retold  in  those  long 
evenings  of  quiet  and  amiable  conversation  at  Plymouth. 
In  1587,  on  the  disgrace  of  Davison  after  the  execution  of 
Mary  Stuart,  Brewster  remained  with  him  for  some  little 
time — perhaps  attending  him  while  he  was  in  the 
Tower — and  then  returned  to  Scrooby,  urged  apparently 
by  the  illness  of  William  Brewster,  Senior.  At  any  rate 
he  was  acting  as  his  father's  deputy  in  January,  1588-89, 
and  at  his  father's  death  in  1590  continued  to  dis- 
charge the  functions  of  Master  of  the  Post  and  of  Re- 


\ 


10  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

ceiver  and  Bailiff.  After  some  little  misunderstanding 
and  difficulty,  he  was  confirmed  in  the  position  of  Master 
of  the  Post,  which  he  retained  until  1608.  He  married  in 
1 59 1  or  1592  and  had  three  children  before  the  exodus  to 
Holland,  the  first,  born  about  1593,  named  Jonathan,  a 
Biblical  name  not  then  common  as  a  Christian  name;  a 
second  child,  born  about  1600,  called  Patience;  and  a 
third,  who  seems  to  have  been  born  just  before  the 
flight  to  Holland,  named  Fear.  Both  girls  lived  to  reach 
Plymouth.  About  this  time  Brewster's  mother,  Pru- 
dence, died.  Other  relatives  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
had. 

There  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  Brewster  was  the 
leading  spirit  in  gathering  the  little  group  of  people  which 
was  afterwards  organized  as  a  Church  and  which  finally 
took  up  its  permanent  abode  at  Plymouth.  Exactly  how 
and  when  it  was  organized  we  do  not  know.  The  usual 
form  of  Puritan  growth  in  southern  England  was  the 
gathering  of  a  classis  of  ministers  who  then  proceeded 
to  convert  the  laity  and  to  draw  them  together  into 
churches.  In  many  cases  some  wealthy  man  or  woman  of 
rank  appointed  to  benefices,  of  which  they  owned  the 
advowson,  Puritan  clergymen  whose  energy  and  mag- 
netism soon  converted  the  laity.  Possibly  the  influence 
of  two  radical  ministers  was  responsible  for  the  group  at 
Scrooby.  Richard  Clifton  was  minister  at  Babworth, 
some  seven  or  eight  miles  south  of  Scrooby,  and  had 
developed  as  early  as  1595  pronouncedly  radical  ideas. 
About  ten  miles  east  of  Scrooby,  at  Gainsborough,  was 
located  John  Smyth,  once  Fellow  of  a  Cambridge  College, 
who  professed  even  more  radical  notions  about  govern- 
ment and  doctrine.1    Members  of  the  later  Scrooby  group 

1  Much  information  about  Clifton  and  Smyth  will  be  found  in 


Scrooby  and  Auster field  n 

certainly  worshipped  from  time  to  time  with  these 
groups  in  the  ten  years  following  1595;  probably  both 
ministers  officiated  occasionally  in  the  Manor  House 
at  Scrooby,  but  the  nucleus  of  the  famous  Plymouth 
Church  was  a  little  group  of  laymen  gathered  together  by 
the  magnetism  and  high  personal  example  of  Brewster 
himself. 

They  did  not  at  first  renounce  the  Established  Church 
nor  refuse  to  attend  its  services,  and  had  for  the  first  ^<f 
years  or  months  no  minister,  teacher,  creed,  or  organiza- 
tion of  any  sort.  Apparently  they  met  at  first  with  the 
utmost  informality  on  Sunday  afternoons  or  during  the 
week.  Later  meetings  were  begun  on  Sunday  forenoon, 
but  such  Puritan  preachers  as  happened  to  be  travelling 
through  Scrooby  or  whom  they  could  induce  to  come  to 
them  for  a  time  from  a  little  distance  were  their  utmost 
reliance,  and  the  expense  was  borne,  Bradford  hints,  very 
largely  by  Brewster  himself.  Not  until  the  autumn  of 
1606  did  they  conclude  to  separate  from  the  Established 
Church  and  organize  a  Church  of  their  own.  Bradford 
explicitly  declares  that  the  Plymouth  Church  was 
created  at  Scrooby,1  but  in  the  light  of  its  later  history  at 
Leyden  it  is  hardly  likely  that  they  had  reached  any 
more  definite  conclusion  than  that  the  Established 
Church  was  not  warranted  by  Scripture  and  that  they 
must  separate  from  it  forthwith.  Indeed,  a  phrase  from 
their  Church  Covenant  of  Leyden  days  quoted  by  Win- 
slow  reveals  a  decided  fluidity  of  opinion  about  organiza- 
tion and  discipline.  "We  promise  and  covenant  with 
God  and  one  with  another  to  receive  whatsoever  light 

Mr.  Champlin  Burrage's  useful,  if  discursive,  Early  English  Dis- 
senters, two  volumes,  Cambridge,  191 2. 
1  History,  14. 


12  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

or  truth  shall  be  made  known  to  us  from  his  written 
Word."  Of  the  personnel  of  the  group  at  this  time  we 
know  only  too  little.1  It  comprised  only  a  minority  of 
the  people  actually  living  at  Scrooby,  with  an  indeter- 
minate number  from  nearby  villages — certainly  by  1607 
Clifton  himself  and  some  of  his  group  from  Babworth, 
and  less  probably  some  of  Smyth's  congregation  at 
Gainsborough,  the  majority  of  which  (with  perhaps  some 
of  Clifton's  Church)  had  already  migrated  to  Amster- 
dam. 

One  extremely  important  recruit  now  came  to  them, 
who  had  been  converted  to  Puritanism  by  Clifton, 
William  Bradford,  a  young  lad,  not  over  eighteen  years 
old  at  this  time,  and  perhaps  not  more  than  sixteen.2 
His  father,  then  dead,  had  been  a  substantial  farmer  in 
the  neighboring  village  of  Austerfield,  was  one  of  the 
two  residents  who  were  assessed  for  subsidy,  and  ap- 
parently therefore  owned  some  considerable  property  in 
land  and  goods.  The  boy's  uncles  and  cousins  were  all 
honest  farmers  of  more  or  less  property  and  had  cordial 
relations  on  an  evident  equality  with  the  best  families  of 
the  hamlet  of  Austerfield  and  the  surrounding  villages. 

1  Most  elaborate  researches  by  Dr.  Hunter  and  by  Rev.  H.  M. 
Dexter  and  his  son,  Morton,  have  identified  as  residents  at  Scrooby 
or  Austerfield  only  Brewster,  Bradford,  and  "a  bare  possibility," 
one  George  Morton. 

2  The  date  of  birth  we  do  not  know.  Mr.  Dexter,  after  correctly 
quoting  the  date  of  Bradford's  baptism  from  the  register — "the 
XlXth  day  of  March,  Anno  dm.  1589." — unaccountably  trans- 
poses it  into  New  Style  as  March  19-29,  1588-89.  It  should  be 
of  course  March  19-29,  1589-90.  Dexter,  England  and  Holland 
of  the  Pilgrims,  389.  Dates  of  the  month  in  this  volume  have  been 
kept  Old  Style;  those  of  the  year  however,  in  accordance  with 
common  historical  usage,  have  been  changed  to  New  Style. 


Scrooby  and  Austet -field  13 

While  still  a  child,  young  Bradford  was  intended  by  his 
uncles,  who  became  his  guardians  after  the  father's  death, 
for  " affairs  of  husbandry"  upon  attaining  his  majority 
and  receiving  his  inheritance,  but,  as  he  tells  us,  being 
somewhat  weak  in  body,  his  thoughts  turned  elsewhere 
and  his  study  of  the  Bible  combined  with  the  magnetism 
of  Clifton  converted  him  to  Separatism  and  made  him  a 
member  ^ftKe  ~Scrooby  group. 

About  this  time  there  came  to  them  a  young  man  of 
about  thirty,  possessed  of  two  Cambridge  degrees,  who 
had  also  been  Fellow  of  Corpus  Christi  College— John 
Robinson.  His  earlier  career  is  in  many  ways  still 
obscure.1  He  seems  to  have  remained  at  Cambridge 
until  about  1603,  and  then  to  have  been  presented  to  a 
benefice  in  the  Established  Church  in  or  near  Norwich, 
where  he  came  into  contact  with  one  of  the  strongest 
bodies  of  radical  Protestants  then  in  England.  Perhaps 
he  was  suspended  for  non-conformity,  but  was  at  any 
rate  chosen  in  1603  preaching  Elder  of  St.  Andrews, 
Norwich,  and  stayed  there  till  1606  or  1607,  tormented 
with  doubts  and  spiritual  misgivings.  For  a  while  he 
may  even  have  made  some  effort  to  meet  the  technical 
requirements  of  the  Established  Church.  He  paid  a 
visit  to  Cambridge  and  there  heard  two  sermons  about 
the  Light  and  the  Darkness  "  between  which  God  hath 
separated"  and  "the  Godly  hereby  are  endangered  to  be 
leavened  with  the  others  wickedness."  He  determined 
to  leave  the  Established  Church  and  drifted  somehow 
from  Cambridge  back  to  Norwich  and  thence  to  Lincoln- 
shire and  Scrooby.  There  he  joined  this  little  congrega- 
tion of  men  and  women  who  "shooke  of  this  yoake  of 
antichristian  bondage  and  as  the  Lords  free  people, 
1  C.  Burrage,  A  Tercentenary  Memorial,  Oxford,  1910. 


14  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

joyned  them  selves  (by  a  covenant  of  the  Lord)  into  a 
church  estate  in  the  felowship  of  the  gospell  to  walke  in 
all  his  waves,  made  known,  or  to  be  made  known  unto 
them,  according  to  their  best  endeavours,  whatsoever  it 
should  cost  them,  the  Lord  assisting  them.  And  that  it 
cost  them  something  this  ensewing  historie  will  declare/' 1 

Bibliographical  Notes 

Until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  nothing  was 
known  of  the  origin  of  the  Pilgrims  in  England.  Bradford's 
History  of  Plimouih  Plantation  had  been  used  by  Nathaniel 
Morton  in  his  New  England's  Memorial,  1669,  and  by  Prince, 
the  author  of  the  well  known  Annals,  but  Bradford  gave 
neither  names  nor  details  about  their  English  residence. 
Nor  did  any  of  the  Pilgrims  leave  behind  in  writing  or  oral 
tradition  any  clue.  In  1842,  Mr.  Savage,  editor  of  the  papers 
of  John  Winthrop,  Governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  inter- 
ested in  this  problem  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hunter,  the  noted 
antiquarian  and  student  of  the  history  of  northern  England. 
In    1849,    Dr.    Hunter   was    able    to    announce    that   the 

1  Bradford,  History,  13.  The  reproduction  of  the  abbrevia- 
tions and  typographical  peculiarities  of  the  manuscripts  and  older 
printed  books  has  not  been  carried  in  this  volume  as  in  some  of 
those  recently  published  about  the  Pilgrims  to  a  point  of  meticulous 
accuracy.  If  we  are  to  write  u  for  v,  w  for  w,  ye  for  the,  yt  for 
that,  we  must  also  decline  to  expand  the  common  contractions. 
The  truth  is  that  we  cannot  with  modern  type  reproduce  the 
manuscripts  and  books  with  exactitude  and  it  therefore  has  seemed 
better  to  follow  the  practice  of  scholars  in  general  and  print  what 
the  author  meant  to  write.  Spelling  and  punctuation  have  been 
scrupulously  followed  but  all  the  abbreviations  and  contractions 
have  been  consistently  expanded.  It  should  be  more  generally 
known  that  the  y  in  ye  is  an  old  diphthong  for  th,  and  in  quoting 
Bradford  I  have  so  rendered  his  text,  on  the  ground  that  the  and 
not  ye  was  what  Bradford  thought  he  was  writing. 


Scrooby  and  Austet -field  15 

main  facts  were  established,  substantially  as  related  in  this 
chapter. 

To  make  definitely  sure  nothing  had  been  missed,  Dr.  H. 
M.  Dexter,  a  wealthy  Congregationalist  minister  of  New 
Haven,  Conn.,  devoted  most  of  his  life  to  untiring  researches 
upon  the  Pilgrim  history  previous  to  the  migration  to  Amer- 
ica. Archives  in  England  and  Holland,  public  and  private; 
church  registers  without  number;  all  repositories  of  any  sort 
within  a  wide  range  of  Scrooby  or  Leyden;  all  American  col- 
lections; the  vast  pamphlet  literature  of  the  period,  directly 
and  indirectly  concerned  with  non-conformist  history,  all 
were  tirelessly  ransacked.  Not  less  than  thirty  years  of  work 
is  represented  by  the  volume,  finished  and  published  by  the 
son  after  the  father's  death,  The  England  and  Holland  of  the 
Pilgrims,  Boston,  1905,  xiv,  673.  The  volume  contains  not 
merely  all  definitely  ascertained  facts  about  the  Pilgrims,  but 
also  the  entire  residuum  of  this  extensive  research  in  facts 
about  them  possibly  relevant,  about  places  they  may  have 
visited,  men  they  may  have  known,  books  they  might  have 
read,  and  such  information  about  the  events  of  English  and 
Dutch  history  as  in  any  degree  of  probability  they  might  have 
learned. 

The  present  author  felt  that  the  records  of  the  more 
general  Puritan  movement  between  1600  and  16 10  must 
contain  something  of  importance  with  reference  to  the 
Pilgrims,  and  that  the  history  of  the  English  Church  at  large 
would  shed  extensive  light  at  least  upon  the  charge,  so 
universally  believed,  that  the  Pilgrims  were  persecuted  and 
"  harried  from  the  land  "  by  Archbishop  Bancroft  and  James  I. 
To  his  surprise,  elaborate  researches  in  the  manuscript  and 
printed  literature  only  established  more  and  more  firmly  the 
negative  but  excessively  significant  fact,  that  the  authorities 
at  London  can  not  be  shown  to  have  known  even  of  the 
existence  of  the  Church  at  Scrooby.  There  seems  now  to  be 
no  collection  of  material  in  England,  Holland,  or  America, 
even  remotely  relevant,  that  has  not  been  thoroughly  ran- 


1 6  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

sacked  for  Pilgrim  material.  Something  like  finality  may 
therefore  be  assumed  for  the  main  features  of  the  narrative  as 
given  in  this  volume. 

The  Bradford  History.  The  only  title  used  by  Bradford 
was  Of  Plimoth  Plantation.  It  was  written  at  Plymouth  in 
1630  and  subsequent  years  from  his  own  notes  and  recollec- 
tions as  well  as  from  letters  and  from  oral  testimony.  Used 
in  manuscript  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  Morton  and  in 
the  eighteenth  century  by  Prince,  the  manuscript  disap- 
peared, carried  off  perhaps  during  the  Revolution  by  some 
American  Tory  refugee  or  by  some  British  soldier,  and  was 
finally  discovered  in  1854  in  the  Library  of  the  Bishop  of 
London  at  Fulham  Palace.  The  manuscript  is  now  in  the 
State  House  at  Boston.  The  full  text  was  published  in  1856 
with  notes  by  Charles  Deane  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society.  A  photographic  facsimile  edition  appeared  in  1896. 
The  State  of  Massachusetts  published  in  1898  a  careful  re- 
print, which  contains  a  number  of  corrections  of  Deane's 
transcript  and  adds  some  sixteen  lines  omitted.  While 
Deane's  notes  are  invaluable,  his  edition  is  long  since  out  of 
print  and  is  accessible  only  in  the  larger  libraries.  References 
in  the  footnotes  of  this  book  are  therefore  to  the  official  edi- 
tion of  1898.  So  much  of  the  narrative  depends  solely  on 
Bradford's  authority  and  the  date  is  generally  so  direct  a 
guide  to  the  passage  referred  to,  that  page  references  to 
Bradford  have  been  given  only  for  particularly  important  or 
elusive  facts.  A  reprint  of  the  text  of  the  official  edition  of 
1898,  with  notes  by  W.  T.  Davis,  was  published  in  New  York 
in  1908  in  the  series  Original  Narratives  of  Early  American 
History.  The  most  recent  edition,  with  elaborate  notes  by 
W.  C.  Ford,  sumptuous  letter  press  and  illustrations,  was 
printed  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  in  191 2  in 
two  volumes. 


CHAPTER  II 

-THE  EXODUS  FROM  ENGLAND 

No  sooner  was  the  little  congregation  "gathered" 
than  persecution  began.  Not  indeed  by  Church  and 
State;  the  orthodox  majority  at  Scrooby  and  the  nearby 
villages,  the  friends  and  relatives  of  the  Separatists,  raised 
vehement  objection  to  the  new  Church.  Numerous  too 
they  were  compared  to  the  new  congregation,  for  we 
can  be  quite  sure  that  prior  to  this  time  there  was  no 
trace  of  Puritanism  or  Separatism  in  the  district,  and 
that  after  the  migration  of  the  little  church  the  popula- 
tion was  orthodox  enough.1  Behind  this  opposition  was 
something  akin  to  indignation  that  any  Protestants 
should  turn  traitor  to  the  great  cause  in  the  face  of  the 
Catholic  majority  in  Northern  England,  and  so  cherish 
their  own  particular  angle  of  thought  as  to  decline  to 
cooperate  against  that  common  enemy,  the  Scarlet 
Woman.  But  there  was  also  behind  it  much  honest 
dislike  that  these  relatives  and  neighbors  should  presume 
to  stand  apart  in  Pharisaical  attitudes  as  holier  and 
wiser  than  the  rest. 

Was  not  the  Church  which  their  fathers  had  accepted 
good  enough  for  these?  Was  this  William  Brewster, 
to  whom  they  had  so  long  paid  their  rents,  and  whose 

1  Cotton  Mather  in  his  life  of  Bradford  in  the  Magnolia  no 
doubt  accurately  represents  the  oral  tradition  at  Plymouth  about 
those  left  behind  at  Scrooby.  "The  people  were  as  unacquainted 
with  the  Bible  as  the  Jews  seem  to  have  been  with  part  of  it  in 
the  days  of  Isaiah;  a  most  ignorant  and  licentious  people." 

17 


1 8  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

orders  they  had  so  long  accepted,  who  had  grown  up 
among  them  from  a  child,  to  be  rated  then  as  a  prophet 
and  wiser  than  the  learned  in  London,  Oxford,  and  Cam- 
bridge? Was  this  pale  and  puny  youngster,  William 
Bradford,  who  in  truth  declared  himself  too  weak  and 
too  proud  to  hold  the  plow,  like  his  honest  father  and 
grandfather,  now  to  stand  forth  as  instructor  and  leader 
in  the  deepest  experiences  men  can  have?  Their  hos- 
tility was  outspoken  and  frank;  the  scoffing  and  jeering 
frequent  and  biting.  All  made  a  deep  impression  on 
Bradford.  He  could  scarcely  credit  the  testimony  of  his 
eyes  and  ears.  A  great  light  had  shone  upon  him, 
clarifying  his  mind  and  uplifting  his  soul,  and  now  his 
relatives  and  friends  made  this  most  sacred  of  expe- 
riences the  subject  of  derision,  made  religion  itself  a 
"byword,  a  moking-stock,  and  a  matter  of  reproach. " 
He  could  neither  excuse  nor  entirely  forgive  it.  It  was 
too  unwarranted,  too  unjust.  He  resented  the  prying, 
spying,  watching  which  became  its  constant  expression. 
The  importance  of  this  hostility  of  the  little  community 
must  not  be  underestimated,  if  we  are  to  grasp  one  of  the 
really  significant  reasons  why  the  Pilgrims  concluded 
life  in  England  to  be  unbearable.  Such  daily  nagging, 
scoffing,  and  deriding  was  to  them  the  most  difficult  of 
persecutions  to  endure. 

From  the  authorities  at  London  and  from  the  ec- 
clesiastics at  York  had  thus  far  come  neither  reproaches 
nor  interference.1     The  Archbishop  of  York,  for  the 

1  There  is  absolutely  no  evidence  in  the  records,  civil  or  ec- 
clesiastical, that  the  existence  of  the  Scrooby  group  was  known 
at  Whitehall  or  at  Lambeth,  before  the  attempt  to  flee  in  1607  led 
to  the  report  by  the  Magistrates  of  Boston  to  the  Privy  Council. 
Nor  was  importance  attached  to  their  existence  then. 


The  Exodus  from  England  iq 

previous  decade,  Matthew  Hutton,  was  one  of  the  most 
tolerant  of  Anglican  clergy  and  too  much  in  sympathy 
with  Puritan  objections  to  the  established  order,  to 
interfere  with  so  peaceable  a  congregation,  located  in  so 
out  of  the  way  a  place.  Like  most  of  the  Northern  clergy, 
he  felt  that  the  profession  of  the  essentials  of  Protestant 
faith  was  all  that  should  be  expected  or  exacted  in  the 
face  of  the  Catholic  majority.  The  definite  judgment 
had  long  been  maintained  at  London,  that,  so  far  as  the 
laity  was  concerned,  no  interference  with  conduct,  belief, 
or  practice  was  to  be  attempted  by  the  constituted  au- 
thorities, except  for  breaches  of  the  peace  or  opposition 
to  the  temporal  authority  of  the  Crown.  As  a  little  body 
of  laymen,  who  had  until  1605  or  1606  openly  attended 
the  services  of  the  Established  Church,  who  were  more- 
over residents  of  a  tiny  district  exempt  both  from  the 
county  of  Nottingham  and  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
regular  ecclesiastical  courts  at  York,  ruled  only  by 
the  personal  authority  of  the  Archbishop  as  Lord  of  the 
Manor,  the  Scrooby  congregation  had  attracted  no  at- 
tention and  had  certainly  not  been  molested  by  the 
authorities. 

Now  however  in  1607,  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  at 
York  instituted  proceedings  of  inquiry  into  the  reports 
and  complaints  which  the  hostile  majority  of  the  Scrooby 
district  disseminated.1   Hutton  was  dead  and  a  new  prel- 

1  This  is  a  point  of  much  interest  and  importance.  We  have  no 
positive  information  other  than  inferences  from  Bradford  and  the 
meagre  court  records  at  York,  and  what  we  know  about  the  rou- 
tine work  of  the  High  Commission,  as  shown  by  material  utilized 
in  Usher's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  High  Commission,  pp.  380,  Oxford, 
1 913.  The  entries  in  these  cases  are  entirely  formal;  prosecution 
ex  officio  was  commonly  assumed  by  the  court  in  such  cases  because 
informants   refused  to  prosecute;  the  failure  to  utilize  the  full 


20  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

ate  that  knew  not  Joseph  ruled  in  his  stead;  at  Canter- 
bury and  at  London  the  new  dispensation  of  Bancroft 
had  determined  to  put  pressure  upon  the  non-conformists, 
in  order  to  force  them  either  to  accept  the  Church  or  to 
leave  it.  The  orders  had  therefore  gone  forth  to  in- 
vestigate promptly  and  thoroughly  all  complaints  of 
divergence  from  the  Prayer  Book  and  Canons  of  1604. 
We  accordingly  find  at  least  five  members  of  the  new 
Church  summoned  before  the  Ecclesiastical  Commis- 
sioners of  the  Province  of  York — Gervase  Neville  in 
November,  1607,  and  in  the  month  of  December  Richard 
Johnson,  William  Brewster,  Robert  Rochester,  and 
Francis  Jessop  of  Worksop,  a  village  about  nine  miles 
from  Scrooby.  Perhaps  others  were  also  cited  but  there 
is  no  mention  in  the  ecclesiastical  records  of  Clifton, 
Robinson,  or  Bradford,  nor  were  any  other  persons 
than  these  named  accused  of  Separatism  or  Baroism. 
The  excellence  and  completeness  of  the  ecclesiastical 
records  at  York  for  this  period,  the  record  of  proceedings 
against  the  five  named,  make  it  probable  that  no  other 
proceedings  were  actually  instituted. 

Neville  was  arraigned  by  the  High  Commissioners 
on  November  tenth,  and  charged  with  membership  in  a 
sect  of  Baroists  and  Brownists,  with  maintaining  erro- 

possibilities  of  fines,  excommunication,  and  attachment,  the 
failure  to  follow  up  the  regular  routine  subsequent  to  citation  are 
inconsistent  with  the  initiative  by  the  authorities  in  opening  the 
case.  When  a  decision  to  prosecute  came  from  above,  particularly 
when  it  came  from  London,  action  was  prompt,  thorough,  and 
severe.  Failure  to  follow  up  a  case  almost  invariably  means  that 
the  information  was  a  presentment  by  individuals.  The  well 
attested  animus  of  the  people  at  Scrooby  and  the  inferences  from 
the  records  seem  therefore  fully  to  warrant  the  statement  in  the 
text. 


The  Exodus  from  England  21 

neous  opinions  and  doctrine  repugnant  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  the  Word  of  God.  He  seems  to  have  first 
denied  the  charge  and  then  to  have  proved  it,  by  stoutly 
informing  the  Archbishop  and  his  officials  that  they  were 
an  anti-Christian  hierarchy,  with  other  remarks  which 
they  declared  in  the  indictment  to  have  been  irreverent, 
contemptuous,  and  scandalous.  They  committed  him 
to  jail  in  the  Castle  of  York  for  trial  and  further  pro- 
ceedings. The  others  were  not  tried  because  they  were 
not  apprehended.  Legal  summons  were  served  upon 
them  by  an  officer  of  the  court  sometime  in  November, 
and  they  all  promised  to  appear  on  December  first. 
They  judged  it  expedient,  however,  to  absent  them- 
selves, and  on  the  twenty-second  of  April  the  court  rec- 
ords prove  that  they  were  still  at  large.  Bradford  ex- 
plains this.  "For  some  were  taken  and  clapt  up  in 
prison,  others  had  their  houses  besett  and  watcht  night 
and  day,  and  hardly  escaped  their  hands;  and  the  most 
were  faine  to  flie  and  leave  their  howses  and  habitations 
and  the  means  of  their  livelehood." 

It  must  be  owned  that  from  what  we  know  of  the 
activity  of  the  High  Commission  elsewhere,  the  treat- 
ment the  Scrooby  congregation  received  was  far  from 
severe.1  Indeed  Neville  was  handled  with  considerable 
charity.  The  procedure  of  the  Commission  had  for 
nearly  a  generation  insisted  that  the  culprit  should  take 
the  oath  ex  officio,  and  should  not  be  allowed  under  any 
circumstances  to  testify  without  taking  it;  if  he  stead- 
fastly refused,  he  was  to  be  committed  tc  prison  until 
such  time  as  he  did  take  it,  and  should  thereupon  be 

1This  again  is  a  point  of  importance  and  the  evidence  about 
the  Commission's  practice,  on  which  it  is  based,  is  considerable  in 
amount,  of  unimpeachable  quality,  and  varied  in  character. 


22  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

tried,  fined,  and  imprisoned  for  his  offence.  Not  long 
before  Greenwood,  Penry,  and  Udall,  all  of  whom  had 
been  at  Cambridge  in  Brewster's  time,  had  been  exe- 
cuted for  this  very  crime  of  Separatism  in  London. 
Yet  Neville  was  permitted  to  testify  without  taking  the 
oath,  and,  though  committed  to  prison  for  a  time,  was, 
after  no  long  confinement,  released  without  further 
examination  or  trial.  He  reached  Amsterdam  either  with 
the  Scrooby  party  or  soon  after.  The  proceedings  against 
Brewster,  Johnson,  and  Rochester  were  the  merest 
routine.  Even  after  several  months'  failure  to  appear, 
they  were  not  adjudged  contumacious  and  excommu- 
nicated, nor  was  the  assistance  of  the  temporal  au- 
thorities sought  to  apprehend  them.  That  much  indeed 
was  commonly  done  by  the  High  Commission  or  the 
ecclesiastical  courts  in  any  case,  however  insignificant, 
where  the  culprit  declined  to  appear.  The  Puritans  in 
the  South  in  fact  completely  disregarded  such  simple 
steps  as  these.  Hundreds  of  the  laity,  both  Churchmen 
and  Puritans,  cheerfully  endured  much  severer  treat- 
ment than  this  without  qualms  of  any  sort,  as  the  records 
of  the  High  Commission  and  of  the  Consistory  Courts 
demonstrate  at  large. 

Whatever  others  would  have  thought  of  it,  the  men 
and  women  at  Scrooby  objected  to  it  vehemently;  but  we 
shall  only  partly  understand  their  decision  to  leave 
England  if  we  see  in  the  exodus  a  mere  flight  from  im- 
placable authorities,  or  the  simple  expression  of  the  fear 
of  the  consequences  likely  to  be  visited  upon  them  for 
remaining  in  England.  It  is  a  great  error  to  stress  the 
hostility  of  the  Church  toward  them  and  say  that  they 
were  harried  from  the  land.  This  action  by  the  Church 
officers  seems  merely  to  have  hastened  the  crystallization 


The  Exodus  from  England  23 

of  their  own  religious  dissatisfaction  with  conditions  in 
England,  for  they  went  voluntarily.  The  Pilgrim  move- 
ment was  in  truth  a  crusade  for  righteousness,  a  search 
for  Utopia,  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Promised  Land.  Their 
sufferings  are  those  of  Christian  in  Pilgrim's  Progress; 
their  trials  and  tribulations  those  which  they  believed  all 
who  follow  the  Lord  Jesus  truly  must  expect  to  endure. 
They  were  seeking  no  mere  temporal  peace,  no  mere 
freedom  from  courts  and  bishops  in  a  temporal  sense,  no 
mere  toleration  of  non-conformity,  but  a  pure  and 
congenial  atmosphere  uncontaminated  by  heresy  and 
anti-Christ.  "Their  desires  were  sett  on  the  ways  of 
God  and  to  en  joy  e  his  ordinances."  The  same  impulse 
which  now  led  them  to  leave  England  later  caused  them 
to  leave  Holland. 

England  was  unclean.  It  was  dangerous  to  remain 
there  longer,  for  those  who  would  worship  God  in  all 
sincerity  and  purity  must  guard  against  the  pollution  and 
contamination  of  the  Beast.  They  must  not  only  them- 
selves obey  God's  Ordinances,  but  they  must  steadfastly 
refrain  from  contact  with  those  who  derided  and  denied 
them.  How  could  the  new  Church  then  remain  at 
Scrooby,  where  the  majority  of  the  people  opposed  and 
resisted  the  Word  of  God,  truly  preached?  How  could 
they  stay  in  England  where  the  law  of  the  land  main- 
tained in  existence  a  vain  hierarchy  of  anti-Christian 
prelates  and  forbade  the  worship  of  God  according  to  His 
Ordinances?  The  vital  objection  to  the  Established 
Church  was  not  so  much  its  activity  in  persecution  as  its 
existence.  To  Robinson  and  Brewster  the  chief  difficulty 
lay  in  the  temporality  of  the  Church — the  hierarchy  of 
Bishops  and  Deans,  the  laws  and  advowsons,  the  courts 
and  judges,  the  ritual,  ceremony,  and  apparel.    It  was 


24  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

all  a  relic  of  Paganism,  there  was  no  warrant  in  Scripture 
for  any  of  it.  It  had  been  foisted  upon  an  unsuspecting 
Church  by  the  Papacy,  but  to  accept  it  now  when  the 
Light  had  been  separated  from  Darkness,  when  the 
revelation  of  Christ  was  seen,  was  to  renounce  salva- 
tion. To  remain  in  contact  with  it  was  to  risk  de- 
filement. 

In  one  breath  the  leaders  at  Scrooby  condemned  the 
Established  Church  and  the  Puritan  party  in  southern 
England.  Indeed  the  latter  were  more  guilty,  if  any- 
thing, than  the  prelates.  They  had  seen  the  Light  but 
had  not  followed  it;  the  Truth  had  been  revealed  to  them 
but  they  had  chosen  rather  to  walk  in  darkness,  to  soil 
themselves  with  pollution  and  to  consort  with  the  un- 
clean, to  hold  rectories  and  cures  in  the  Church  of  anti- 
Christ,  to  accept  money  for  reading  the  Prayer  Book,  for 
wearing  the  vestments,  for  celebrating  the  communion. 
The  very  fact  that  the  Puritan  ministers  strove  so 
vigorously  to  remain  in  the  Church,  to  secure  the  con- 
nivance of  the  Bishops  at  a  few  "irregularities,"  was 
sufficient  in  the  eyes  of  these  men  to  condemn  them 
utterly. 

The  breakdown  of  the  Puritan  movement  after  1604, 
the  failure  of  the  leaders  to  maintain  a  solid  front  against 
the  Established  Church,  their  acceptance  of  the  Canons 
of  1604  and  the  Visitation  Articles  issued  in  1605,  the 
willingness  of  the  majority  to  remain  "unseparated," 
were  indeed  the  significant  causes  of  the  separation  of  the 
Pilgrims  from  the  Church  and  of  their  exodus  from 
England.  There  was  no  longer  hope  of  any  regeneration 
in  the  Church  itself.  The  influence  of  Bancroft  with  the 
King,  the  definiteness  of  the  new  Canons,  made  further 
reform  from  within  improbable.    Nor  was  there  hope  of 


The  Exodus  from  England  25 

regenerating  the  Puritan  party.  They  had  sold  their 
heritage  for  a  mess  of  pottage.  There  was  no  one  left  in 
England  with  whom  the  Pilgrims  might  hope  to  have 
communion.  They  were  surrounded  by  scoffers  and 
scorners,  by  the  emissaries  of  anti-Christ,  and  by  the 
Puritans  who  compromised  truth  in  order  to  retain  their 
stipends.  All  was  wrong,  all  was  uncongenial,  unclean, 
and  from  it  they  fled. 

The  different  view  it  is  now  possible  to  take  of  the 
general  .rjoJiev^  of  Bancroft  and  of  the  beliefs  and  actions 
of  the  Puritan  party  in  general  is  therefore  a  genuine 
contribution  to  an  understanding  of  the  Pilgrim  move- 
ment and  of  the  true  impulse  behind  it.1  When  it  was 
supposed  that  Bancroft's  regime  was  one  of  great  harsh- 
ness and  injustice,  in  which  the  most  learned  of  the 
English  clergy  were  ruthlessly  deprived  and  driven  from 
the  Church,  the  emigration  of  the  Pilgrims  seemed  to  be 
logically  enough  the  direct  result  of  ecclesiastical  per- 
secution. They  left  England  because  they  were  not 
allowed  to  stay,  because  men  of  their  opinions  were 
persecuted  by  Church  and  State  alike.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  Puritan  clergy  were  not  persecuted  nor  did  they 
leave  the  Church.  Some  sixty  were  temporarily  deprived 
or  suspended  in  1604  and  1605,  of  whom  the  great  ma- 
jority soon  conformed,  accepted  the  tests  prescribed  by 
Bancroft,  and  continued  to  preach  in  their  parishes 
without  molestation.  In  the  history  of  the  Pilgrims 
there  is  no  more  vital  and  important  fact  than  this — 
that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Puritans  ac- 

1  The  evidence  for  this  general  view  of  the  Established  Church 
and  of  the  Puritan  party  in  England  at  this  time  has  been  developed 
in  Usher's  Reconstruction  of  the  English  Church,  2  vols.,  New  York 
and  London,  1910. 


26  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

cepted  the  Established  Church  and  remained  members 
of  it,  read  its  Prayer  Book,  and  performed  voluntarily 
its  ceremonies.  They  were  the  fathers  of  the  men  who 
came  to  Boston,  Salem,  New  Haven,  and  the  River 
Towns.  Assuredly,  we  shall  never  grasp  the  story  of  the 
early  years  in  New  England  nor  understand  why  Plym- 
outh did  not  grow  in  numbers,  as  successive  waves  of 
Puritans  reached  America,  unless  we  bear  constantly 
in  mind  that  the  Pilgrims  voluntarily  left  England  to 
avoid  contact  both  with  the  Church  and  with  the  Puri- 
tans who  accepted  it.  Indeed,  the  Puritans  and  Bishops 
taunted  the  Pilgrims  with  running  away  from  a  persecu- 
tion which  did  not  exist,  with  silly  fears  of  little  things, 
with  an  insistence  upon  indifferent  matters.  One  and  all 
the  Separatists  denied  stoutly  that  they  left  because  they 
were  afraid,  because  they  were  driven  out,  or  because  the 
temporal  persecutions  were  severe.  One  and  all  they 
asseverated  solemnly  their  deep  conviction  that  associa- 
tion with  Church  or  Puritans  was  dangerous  to  spiritual 
welfare,  was  a  compromise  with  Truth,  a  failure  to  ob- 
serve God's  Ordinances.1 

If  go  they  must,  the  Scrooby  congregation  could  not 
long  doubt  whither  to  turn.  The  probable  location  of 
the  Promised  Land  was  already  clear.  Two  years  before 
Smyth's  congregation  had  gone  from  their  own  little 
district  to  Holland,  and  had  found  there,  as  they  well 
knew,  spiritual  comfort  and  a  congenial  environment. 
The  fact  that  these  neighbors  of  theirs,  farmers  like 

1  The  controversial  literature  is  full  of  material  on  this  point. 
See  in  particular  Confessio  Fidei  Anghrum  Quorundam  in  Belgia 
Exulantium,  etc.,  1598,  preface;  supposedly  the  work  of  Ainsworth 
and  Johnson;  and  Robinson's  Answer  to  a  Censorious  Epistle, 
1608;  Ashton,  Works  of  John  Robinson,  III,  405-420. 


The  Exodus  from  England  27 

themselves,  had  made  a  livelihood  in  Holland  proved  to 
the  leaders  that  the  migration  was  not,  as  the  rank  and 
file  thought,  an  adventure  almost  desperate,  but  one  in 
all  probability  certain  of  success.  The  exodus  seems  to 
have  been  decided  upon  in  the  spring  or  early  summer  of 
1607,  and  for  it  they  soon  completed  their  simple  prepara- 
tions. Land  and  houses  most  of  them  did  not  own,  for 
they  were  tenants  at  will  of  the  Archbishop.  Such  prop- 
erty as  Brewster  had  he  converted  into  money;  and  the 
rest  followed  his  example.  Household  goods,  clothing, 
books,  they  proposed  to  take  with  them.  How  many 
went  is  not  known.  Bradford's  description  of  the  journey 
to  Holland  is  scarcely  consistent  with  a  movement  of  less 
than  one  hundred  people,  and  the  number  of  the  con- 
gregation in  Holland  in  later  years  makes  this  seem  a 
probable  estimate.  The  law  forbade  them  to  leave 
England,  to  carry  money  of  any  sort  out  of  the  kingdom, 
or  to  export  goods  without  written  authorization.  It 
was  extremely  difficult  to  secure  permission  to  emigrate 
without  any  intention  of  returning,  carrying  both  money 
and  goods.  That  was  a  permanent  loss  to  the  realm  of 
which  the  authorities  did  not  approve.  Certain  that 
permission  to  emigrate  would  be  refused,  primarily  on 
economic  grounds,  they  resolved  to  go  without  permis- 
sion, and  were  forced  therefore  to  flee  like  "criminals  or 
conspirators." 

"A  large  company  of  them"  travelled  overland  to 
Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  and  there  quietly  arranged  with  a 
certain  shipmaster  to  convey  them  and  their  goods  to 
Holland.  After  considerable  waiting  at  the  out  of  the 
way  place  appointed,  he  finally  appeared  at  night,  took 
them  on  board,  and  then,  to  their  astonishment  and 
indignation,  betrayed  them  to  the  customs'  officers  and 


28  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

searchers  of  the  district.  The  latter  rowed  them  ashore 
in  small  boats,  searching  both  them  and  their  goods  with 
great  thoroughness  for  the  forbidden  gold  and  silver, 
proceeding  with  the  women  so  far  that  the  men  were 
highly  indignant.  Landed  at  the  town,  they  were 
paraded  into  the  market  place,  "a  spectacle  and  wonder 
to  the  multitude  which  came  flocking  on  all  sides  to 
behould  them."  This  too  the  high-spirited  Bradford  could 
scarcely  endure.  Then  their  books  and  goods  having 
been  taken  away,  they  were  led  before  the  magistrates, 
who  committed  them  to  honorable  confinement,  probably 
in  the  houses  of  some  of  the  townspeople,  while  messen- 
gers hurried  to  London  to  ask  the  Privy  Council  for 
instructions  as  to  further  proceedings  with  them.  They 
were  used  meantime  with  great  courtesy,  as  even  Brad- 
ford must  confess,  and  were  shown  such  leniency  and 
favor  as  was  possible.  The  Privy  Council  considered 
their  offence  unimportant,  and  sent  orders  for  their 
release,  so  that  after  about  a  month's  detention  they 
were  all  sent  back  to  their  homes,  except  seven  of  the 
leaders  who  were  kept  at  Boston  to  be  turned  over  to  the 
assizes.  Of  the  latter  Brewster  was  one.  If  they  ever 
appeared  before  the  judges,  they  were  released,  for  we 
have  no  knowledge  of  subsequent  trial,  conviction,  or 
confinement. 

Indeed,  a  number  of  the  party  successfully  reached 
Holland  in  the  autumn  of  1607  and  some  months  later 
the  rest  of  the  contingent  tried  again  to  escape.  They 
arranged  with  a  Dutch  captain,  who  owned  his  ship,  to 
take  them  on  board  south  of  the  Humber,  where  the 
coast  was  shelving  and  deserted.  Thither  the  women  and 
children  with  the  baggage  travelled  in  a  boat  or  boats, 
apparently  down  the  river  Idle  to  the  Trent,  to  the 


The  Exodus  from  England  29 

Humber,  and  thence  along  the  coast,  while  the  men 
walked  overland.  The  boats  arrived  a  day  before  the 
ship,  and,  the  sea  being  extremely  rough  and  the  women 
in  consequence  very  sick,  they  put  it  into  a  little  creek 
nearby  to  wait,  until  the  gale  should  have  blown  itself 
out.  The  next  morning  according  to  arrangements  the 
ship  did  come.  The  men  also  arrived,  but  the  boats  with 
the  women  and  children  were  stuck  fast  on  the  shoals  of 
the  creek  and  their  utmost  endeavors  could  not  move 
them.  The  shipmaster  began  to  take  the  men  on  board, 
while  waiting  for  the  tide  to  come  in,  and  the  first  boat 
load  had  already  reached  the  ship,  when  suddenly  a 
numerous  and  motley  crowd  from  the  country  side,  some 
on  horseback,  most  on  foot,  some  with  muskets  and  some 
with  older  weapons,  were  seen  approaching  in  the  dis- 
tance. The  news  had  spread  that  somebody  was  escap- 
ing. The  Dutch  captain  waited  to  learn  no  more,  but 
weighed  anchor,  hoisted  his  sails,  and  departed,  carrying 
the  men  who  had  gotten  aboard,  leaving  the  rest  on 
shore,  and  the  wives  and  children  stranded  in  the  creek. 
The  latter  were  by  no  means  the  most  distressed  at  the 
happening,  because  those  on  board  had  no  money,  no 
clothes  but  those  on  their  backs,  and  were  as  much  con- 
cerned at  leaving  their  wives  and  children  behind  them 
as  the  latter  were  at  being  left.  Bradford,  Brewster,  and 
the  leaders  were  still  on  shore,  however,  like  good  gen- 
erals, and,  sending  the  majority  of  the  men  off  to  escape 
arrest,  remained  to  take  care  of  the  women.  The  latter 
were  weeping  and  crying,  some  for  their  husbands  who 
had  been  carried  away  in  the  ship,  others  for  fear  of  the 
consequences  of  the  arrest,  others  again  "  melted  in  teares 
seeing  their  poore  litle  ones  hanging  aboute  them  crying 
for  f eare  and  quaking  with  could. ' '    Thus  these  dangerous 


30  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

conspirators  were  captured  by  the  formidable  force  sent 
out  after  them. 

Once  taken,  the  local  authorities  were  nonplussed  to 
know  what  to  do  with  them.  The  constables  apparently 
hurried  them  around  from  one  Justice  of  the  Peace  to 
another,  from  this  court  to  that,  only  to  make  up  their 
minds  that  the  simplest  escape  from  the  dilemma  was  to 
connive  at  their  departure  for  Holland.  The  Bishops 
and  their  commissaries,  of  whose  hostility  to  the  Pilgrims 
so  much  has  been  written,  are  not  mentioned  by  Brad- 
ford, nor  is  there  evidence  to  show  their  knowledge  of 
the  Scrooby  congregation's  flight.  The  only  evidence 
concerns  the  officious  meddling  of  minor  local  civil 
officials.  E^en  they  do  not  communicate  with  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  nor  the  latter  with  them:  they 
informed  the  Privy  Council  the  first  time,  but  not  the 
second,  and  received  from  London  orders  to  release  the 
captives,  not  to  punish  them.  Surely  there  is  here  no 
proof  that  State  or  Church  was  anxious  to  persecute  the 
Pilgrims  or  drive  them  from  England.  A  half-hearted 
attempt  was  made  to  keep  them  at  home,  but  in  the  end 
they  escaped  with  the  connivance  of  the  local  authorities 
and  without  interference  from  Lambeth  or  London. 

Thus  in  one  way  or  another,  after  considerable  anxiety 
and  temporary  suffering,  all  arrived  safely  in  Amsterdam. 
Brewster  and  Bradford  came  among  the  last,  having 
stayed  to  make  sure  that  the  weakest  and  poorest  should ' 
successfully  cross.  Clifton  arrived  in  August,  1608, 
and  it  seems  probably  that  that  month  marked  the  end 
of  the  exodus.  Real  danger  only  the  men  who  sailed 
away  with  the  Dutch  captain  seemed  to  have  encoun- 
tered. Their  ship  met  a  great  storm  in  the  North 
Sea   and   for   fourteen    days   was    driven    hither    and 


The  Exodus  from  England  31 

thither  at  the  mercy  of  wind  and  waves.  For  one  entire 
week,  they  saw  neither  sun,  moon,  nor  stars,  and  were 
unable  indeed  from  the  crude  instruments  they  carried 
to  make  out  where  they  were.  Even  the  sailors  were 
frightened,  and  once,  with  shrieks  and  cries,  declared  that 
the  ship  was  sinking.  The  Pilgrims,  according  to  Brad- 
ford, fell  on  their  knees  and  prayed  with  such  fervor  and 
faith,  that  the  ship  weathered  the  storm  and  finally 
made  port.  United  once  more  in  Amsterdam,  they  held 
solemn  services  of  humiliation  and  thanksgiving  for 
their  deliverance  from  the  hand  of  the  Spoiler. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  HARDNESS  OF  LIFE  IN  HOLLAND 

Doubts  of  their  ability  to  make  a  living  in  Holland  had 
caused  the  emigrants  many  misgivings  before  the  exodus, 
but  the  economic  opportunities  for  such  as  they  at 
Amsterdam  were  numerous,  and  the  experience  of  other 
religious  refugees  from  Germany  and  France,  as  well  as 
from  England,  had  demonstrated  the  feasibility  of  the 
experiment.  Holland  had  made  great  strides  in  com- 
mercial development  during  the  sixteenth  century  and 
no  city  had  benefited  from  the  general  prosperity  more 
than  Amsterdam.  The  growth  of  the  herring  trade,  the 
shift  of  the  cloth  industry  from  Flanders  to  Holland 
after  the  fall  of  Antwerp,  the  rapid  increase  of  the 
Dutch  merchant  marine,  plying  between  Europe  and 
the  East  and  West-  Indies,  had  created  a  great  demand 
for  unskilled  labor  of  all  sorts  and  kinds.  Nowhere  in 
Europe  was  there  at  that  time  a  community  in  which  a 
hundred  pairs  of  hands  could  be  more  quickly  or  easily 
put  to  work. 

All  this  the  leaders  of  the  Scrooby  Church  saw  when 
they  held  council  together  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1608  and  debated  earnestly  arrangements  for  permanent 
residence.  But  these  economic  opportunities  were  to 
their  thinking  more  than  offset  by  the  religious  dis- 
advantages. Amsterdam  was  "the  Fair  of  all  the  Sects 
where  all  the  Pedlars  of  Religion  have  leave  to  vend  their 
Toyes."  They  knew  themselves  to  be  welcome,  but  they 
saw  received  with  equal  eagerness  Anabaptists,  Socinians, 

32 


The  Hardness  of  Life  in  Holland  33 

Jews,  Arians,  and  Unitarians,  heretics  quite  beyond  the 
possibility  of  salvation,  with  whom  contact  was  even 
more  dangerous  and  contaminating  than  with  Papists 
and  Episcopalians.  To  fill  their  cup  of  woe  to  the  full, 
they  concluded  regretfully  that  the  English  Separatist 
Churches  of  Johnson,  Ainsworth,  and  Smyth,  were  in 
grave  danger  of  falling  from  Grace,  and  that  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Churches  were  blind  to  the  Light  in  the  Word 
of  God.  These  could  not  be  congenial  associates.  They 
decided  to  seek  some  place  where  there  were  neither 
heretics  nor  English,  some  place  where  they  should  live 
as  nearly  as  might  be  alone,  and  observe  together  the 
Ordinances  of  God  whose  perpetuation  was  the  prime 
motive  of  their  exodus  from  Scrooby. 

After  some  hesitation  they  pitched  upon  Leyden  as 
a  permanent  residence,1  attracted  by  the  fame  of  its 
University,  by  favorable  economic  opportunities  in  a 
flourishing  city  of  fifty  thousand  people,  given  over  to 
the  manufacture  of  cloth,  and  in  particular  by  the  ab- 
sence at  Leyden  of  other  religious  malcontents.  The 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  they  would  have  to  contend 
with,  but  the  cosmopolitan  heretics  at  Amsterdam  and 
the  quarrelling  English  Separatists  they  would  thus  leave 
behind.    An  application  to  the  magistrates  at  Leyden  in 

1  Beyond  the  few  inaccurate  brevities  in  Mather's  Magnalia  and 
Prince's  Annals,  nothing  was  known  about  the  Pilgrims  at  Leyden 
till  the  researches  of  George  Sumner  in  1842  and  H.  C.  Murphy  in 
1859.  The  publication  of  Bradford's  History  in  1856  helped  little 
for  he  gives  no  direct  description  of  the  life  at  Leyden,  nor  were 
Robinson's  theological  treatises  of  value  for  the  narrative,  the 
conditions  of  life,  the  membership,  and  the  like.  Our  present 
knowledge,  however,  is  the  result  of  the  elaboration  of  Sumner's 
and  Murphy's  researches  by  Dr.  Dexter  and  his  son  in  no  less  than 
eleven  visits  to  Leyden. 


34  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

December,  1608,  or  January,  1609,  for  permission  to  emi- 
grate thither  in  the  following  May  was  granted  appar- 
ently without  objection  on  February  12,  and  in  the  spring 
some  hundred  or  more  went  thither  under  the  leadership 
of  Robinson.  Clifton,  their  first  minister,  remained 
behind  with  some  of  the  congregation,  who  were  ac- 
credited to  the  Ancient  Church  of  Johnson  and  Ains- 
worth.1 

Unfortunately  we  know  relatively  little  about  the 
Pilgrims  at  Leyden  despite  the  almost  incredible  diligence 
of  Dr.  Dexter  and  his  son.  The  names  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-two  men,  women,  and  children  have  been 
discovered  who  were  certainly  members  of  Robinson's 
Church  and  the  names  of  seventy-two  who  were  in  all 
probability  associated  with  the  Church.  The  greatest 
probable  maximum  number  of  persons,  men,  women,  and 
children,  from  1609  to  1620  is  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
three.2  At  Leyden  were  also  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine 
English  people  during  this  period  who  may  conceivably 
have  been  associated  with  the  Church  but  whose  connec- 
tion is  not  demonstrable.  From  a  possible  four  hundred 
and  seventy-three  and  a  less  possible  six  hundred  twenty- 
six  came  the  thirty-five  who  eventually  sailed  on  the 
Mayflower.  In  the  Dutch  records  are  also  evidence  of 
some  score  of  marriages  and  many  births  and  deaths;  the 
places  of  residence  of  a  considerable  number  of  Robin- 
son's congregation  have  been  established  with  some 
certainty.  Thirty-three  of  the  men  became  citizens  of 
Leyden  before  1620.  In  16 10  the  little  group  bought  a 
rather  considerable  house,  in  whose  upper  story  Robinson 

1  The  best  and  most  recent  account  of  these  Separatist  Churches 
is  C.  Burrage,  Early  English  Dissenters,  Cambridge,  191 2. 

2  See  Appendix  A  on  the  number  of  Robinson's  Church. 


The  Hardness  of  Life  in  Holland  35 

and  his  family  lived,  and  in  whose  lower  rooms  the 
congregation  met.  This  was  their  church.  Some  in- 
dividuals purchased  land  from  time  to  time;  some 
bought  houses;  others  built  them;  but  beyond  these  bare 
details  very  little  is  known  about  the  great  majority  of 
members  and  still  less  can  be  definitely  established  about 
their  experiences  together. 

Certainly  they  found  the  life  hard  and  the  atmosphere 
uncongenial.  After  about  seven  years'  residence — a 
time  long  enough  to  give  the  experiment  a  fair  trial — • 
they  concluded  that  their  conception  of  the  Church 
could  not  be  perpetuated  in  Holland,  because  of  the 
unfavorable  economic  conditions  and  because  of  their 
inability  to  control  civil  and  religious  affairs.  The  un- 
conscious pressure  of  an  established  community  upon 
the  fluid  organization  of  the  little  congregation  was  too 
great  to  be  withstood.  It  is  upon  this  aspect  of  the  life 
that  Bradford  lays  greatest  stress  in  his  summary  of  the 
reasons  for  leaving  Ley  den.  They  seem  to  have  had 
little  difficulty  in  finding  work,  but  extraordinary  dif- 
ficulty in  winning  more  than  a  bare  existence.  The 
members  of  the  Scrooby  Church  had  been  small  farmers 
and  husbandmen,  perhaps  nothing  more  than  laborers 
on  the  farms  of  others,  and  they  now  found  themselves 
in  a  maritime  and  industrial  community  without  skill 
in  the  various  enterprises  conducted  there  and  without 
the  necessary  capital  to  undertake  others  of  their  own. 
Indeed  the  only  occupation  they  understood,  agricul- 
ture, was  not  possible  at  Leyden.  The  skilled  trades 
and  highly  remunerative  occupations  were  controlled 
by  craft  guilds  in  the  interests  of  their  existing  mem- 
bers, and  the  requirements  for  admission,  rigidly  main- 
tained,   invariably    insisted    upon    Dutch    citizenship, 


36  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

some  little  capital,  and  much  experience.  For  those 
who  were  neither  citizens  nor  had  capital  to  invest  such 
trades  were  out  of  the  question. 

Practically  all  found  themselves  condemned  to  labor 
extremely  hard  for  small  wages  in  the  least  skilled  crafts. 
Some  twenty  became  say  weavers,  making  a  sort  of 
coarse  thick  cloth  not  unlike  a  very  inferior  quality  of 
heavy  blanket;  eight  became  wool-combers;  four  or  five 
became  merchant  tailors,  wool  carders,  fustian  weavers, 
hat  makers,  printers,  while  the  remainder  of  the  com- 
pany in  ones  and  twos  were  distributed  among  some 
forty  other  occupations.  Nearly  all  of  these  involved 
hard  manual  labor  for  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hours  a 
day.  William  Bradford  became  a  fustian  weaver.  The 
only  other  thing  we  know  about  his  life  at  Leyden  is  his 
marriage,  December  10,  1613,  at  Amsterdam,  to  Dorothy 
May,  a  young  girl  of  sixteen.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Henry  May  of  Wisbeach,  Cambridgeshire,  England, 
who  was  probably  a  prominent  member  of  Ainsworth's 
Church  and  who  himself  witnessed  the  banns  at  Amster- 
dam on  November  9,  1613.  She  accompanied  Bradford 
on  the  Mayflower  but  was  drowned  at  Province  town. 
Their  only  son,  John,  remained  at  Leyden,  but  reached 
Plymouth  in  1627.  Edward  Winslow  became  a  printer; 
Isaac  Allerton  a  tailor;  Robert  Cushman  a  wool-comber; 
Jonothan  Brewster,  the  eldest  son  of  William,  a  ribbon- 
maker. 

When  William  Brewster  first  came  to  Holland,  he 
seems  to  have  brought  with  him  a  larger  sum  of  money 
and  more  household  goods  than  the  majority  and  was 
able  with  difficulty  to  eke  out  subsistence  for  s*me  years 
from  his  slender  capital.  In  16  g^  forced  to  earn  money 
in  some  way  and  unable  to  perform  the  heavy  manual 


The  Hardness  of  Life  in  Holland  37 

labor  required  by  most  of  these  occupations,  he  became 
a  printer  in  partnership  with  another  member  of  the 
congregation,  Thomas  Brewer,  apparently  not  one  of 
the  Scrooby  Church,  but  a  later  acquisition.  The  press 
did  no  job  printing,  as  it  is  now  called,  nor  did  they 
keep  an  open  shop  where  books  were  for  sale,  nor  did 
they  print  books  intended  for  circulation  in  Holland. 
The  object  was  the  publication  in  English  of  books  in- 
tended for  circulation  in  England,  but  prohibited  by 
the  Government.  The  edition,  once  prepared,  was 
shipped  to  London  to  be  sold  by  their  Separatist  and 
Puritan  friends.  Not  more  than  sixteen  volumes  *  repre- 
sent their  labor  in  the  three  years  1617,  1618,  1619, 
proving  that  the  plant  was  by  no  means  a  large  one  and 
hardly  a  remunerative  business.  In  16 19,  Brewster 
printed  David  Calderwood's  Perth  Assembly,  a  descrip- 
tion of  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  Scotland  highly  uncompli- 
mentary to  the  English  King  and  his  ministers.  The 
English  Ambassador,  Dudley  Carlton,  at  once  com- 
plained  to   the   Dutch    authorities   and   insisted   that 

1  Mr.  Dexter  gives  16;  Arber  lists  15;  Rev.  O.  G.  Crippen  lists  9 
in  the  Congregational  Historical  Society 's  Transactions,  December, 
1 901,  iio-iii.  The  results  of  Pilgrim  research  have  yielded  so 
meagre  a  return  for  so  excessive  an  amount  of  labor,  that  students 
have  tended  to  regard  conjectures  not  obviously  unwarranted  as 
interesting  and  important.  Indeed,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  Dexter, 
Arber,  and  Ames  have  all  more  than  once  assumed  bare  possibili- 
ties to  have  been  already  demonstrated  as  truths.  So  in  this  case. 
Only  two  books  bear  Brewster's  name;  two  more  he  admitted 
printing;  two  others  Carle  ton,  the  English  Ambassador,  said  that 
Dutch  printers  believed  he  printed.  We  have  a  definite  total  of 
four  and  a  probable  total  of  six.  The  rest  listed  by  Arber  and 
Dexter  bear  no  imprint  or  mark  of  identification  and  cannot  be 
demonstrated  by  evidence  ever  to  have  been  printed  in  Holland, 
to  say  nothing  of  tracing  them  to  the  Pilgrim  Press. 


38  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Brewster  had  broken  the  Dutch  law  by  printing  and  ex- 
porting the  book.  Escaping  the  bailiffs  with  the  aid  of 
his  friends,  he  migrated  with  his  family  to  England,  where 
he  seems  to  have  lived  from  July,  16 19,  until  the  May- 
flower sailed.  Brewer  was  apprehended,  but  eventually 
escaped  serious  penalty,  primarily  because  the  Uni- 
versity of  Leyden,  on  whose  books  he  was  enrolled  as  a 
scholar,  was  induced,  perhaps  by  Robinson,  to  treat 
his  case  as  one  of  university  privilege.  At  all  events, 
no  more  books  were  printed. 

The  net  result  of  seven  years  of  hard  toil  was  dis- 
couraging— a  bare  subsistence.  Upon  the  economic 
difficulties  they  shouldered  their  disappointment  in  the 
growth  of  the  Church.  The  increase  seems  to  us  con- 
siderable. Not  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
all  told,  men,  women,  and  children,  had  come  to  Leyden 
and  within  ten  years  their  number  had  perhaps  doubled. 
At  all  events  they  were  bitterly  disappointed.  They 
had  expected  the  Ordinances  of  God,  duly  performed, 
to  attract  more  adherents  from  England  and  from  Hol- 
land. They  felt  sure  that  the  solution  of  the  economic 
problem  would  increase  their  number  many  fold  and 
thus  assure  the  permanence  of  the  organization.  For, 
argue  as  they  might,  they  could  not  but  admit  that  its 
permanence  was  threatened  at  Leyden.  Though  the 
adults  were  in  the  prime  of  life,  they  realized  that  they 
could  not  continue  for  many  years  such  hard  manual 
labor.  The  subsistence  of  the  little  community  also 
made  imperative  work  by  the  younger  members,  even 
by  the  children;  all  did  some  sort  of  manual  labor,  which 
had  upon  body  and  mind  no  less  disastrous  effects  in  the 
seventeenth  century  than  it  has  now;  and,  while  many 
of  the  children  had  borne  cheerfully  these  heavy  bur- 


The  Hardness  of  Life  in  Holland  39 

dens,  others  had  left  home  and  become  soldiers  or  sailors, 
and  still  others  "some  worse  characters  tending  toward 
dissoluteness  and  the  danger  of  their  soules."  Thus  in 
one  way  or  another,  physically  and  morally,  the  strength 
of  the  little  community  was  being  sapped,  its  member- 
ship here  and  there  drifting  away,  and  its  integrity  as  a 
community  so  sorely  threatened  that  the  leaders  realized 
that  its  permanence  could  not  be  predicated  at  Leyden. 

The  road  to  economic  success  in  Holland  was  all  too 
clear.  If  they  would  but  become  Dutch  citizens,  join 
the  Dutch  Church,  use  the  Dutch  language,  and  re- 
nounce their  English  characteristics  permanently,  the 
craft  guilds  would  open  their  doors,  more  remunerative 
employments  would  become  possible,  and  some  definite 
and  permanent  share  of  the  great  prosperity  of  the  little 
country  would  be  theirs.  Incontestably,  the  price  of 
permanence  was  the  loss  of  their  integrity  as  a  group 
of  Englishmen,  speaking  English,  living  in  accordance 
with  English  customs,  holding  their  services  in  the 
English  language,  and  maintaining  on  alien  soil  as  their 
most  precious  possession  their  identity  as  Englishmen. 
Already  by  1620  thirty- three  members  of  the  Church 
had  become  Dutch  citizens;  many  of  the  children  used 
Dutch  in  preference  to  English;  the  adequate  education 
of  the  children  was  possible  only  in  the  Dutch  schools; 
and  they  saw  that  longer  residence  would  make  inter- 
marriage inevitable.    From  all  of  this  they  shrank. 

Yet  as  students  we  must  see  within  these  economic 
considerations  the  great  spiritual  truth  which  inter- 
penetrates them,  for  the  psychology  of  the  Pilgrims  is 
the  most  essential  fact  to  grasp  in  their  history.  With- 
out it  we  shall  continually  miss  the  key  to  the  significant 
decisions.     The  rigid  maintenance  of  separation  from 


40  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

the  English  Established  Church  had  been  their  main 
object  in  leaving  England,  but  they  now  sought  as  well 
some  environment  in  which  their  views  of  the  intentions 
of  Christ  in  regard  to  Church  government  could  be 
developed  and  made  permanent.  They  saw  their  chil- 
dren already  less  firm  in  the  faith  than  themselves. 
They  feared  that  the  weakness  of  the  flesh  would  cause 
many  to  forsake  the  Ordinances  of  God  and  either  re- 
turn to  England  to  the  bondage  of  the  Established 
Church,  or  join  the  Dutch  Churches  in  order  to  insure 
themselves  something  better  than  bare  subsistence  in 
exchange  for  a  life  of  drudgery.  Only  in  comparative 
isolation,  they  saw,  away  from  the  influence  of  other 
churches  and  governments,  could  they  hope  to  create  a 
permanent  community  where  religious  ideals  and  church 
government  should  be  maintained  in  accordance  with 
what  they  believed  to  be  the  Divine  Revelation. 

While  at  Leyden  their  ideas  on  government  and  doc- 
trine had  crystallized.  There  is  no  certainty  that  at 
Scrooby  a  Minister  had  been  definitely  "called"  and 
church  officers  elected.  We  know  nothing  of  decisions 
in  regard  to  doctrine.  Robinson  joined  them  just  be- 
fore the  emigration,  and  was  himself  so  young  a  man 
and  his  convictions  so  recently  achieved,  that  only  in 
time  did  he  reach  definitive  conclusions.  Indeed  it  is 
at  Leyden  that  the  Pilgrim  Church  as  we  now  speak  of 
it  was  organized.  Robinson  then  became  formally 
Minister,  Brewster  was  chosen  Elder,  while  the  deluge 
of  controversies  into  which  they  were  at  once  plunged 
compelled  them  to  crystallize  their  notions  of  govern- 
ment and  doctrine.1    With  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church, 

1  These  seem  to  have  been  vague  and  fluid.  "In  what  place 
soever,  by  what  means  soever,  whether  by  preaching  the  gospel 


The  Hardness  of  Life  in  Holland  41 

debating  eagerly  over  the  controversy  between  Arminius 
and  Gomarius,  they  came  at  once  into  contact,  and  upon 
both  of  those  theological  distinctions  they  had  to  sit 
in  judgment.  The  English  Separatist  Churches,  too, 
at  odds  with  each  other  and  riven  by  internal  dissen- 
tions,  appealed  to  the  new  congregation  for  confirmation 
and  support.  Many  and  long  were  the  discussions  and 
arguments  in  the  great  house.  Robinson  was  a  really 
remarkable  man  of  keen  intellectual  perceptions  and 
wide  learning,  a  leader  in  the  truest  and  best  sense  of 
the  word.1  A  man  of  great  energy,  a  constant  student, 
a  diligent  author,  he  played  a  decided  part  in  all  these 
controversies  and  speedily  developed  and  organized 
his  own  ideas  and  with  them  those  of  his  congregation. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  perhaps  gratuitous  to  assume  that 
Robinson's  books  represent  literally  the  notions  which 
Brewster  and  Bradford  brought  to  Plymouth.  They 
were  hardly  as  advanced  as  he  and  were  scarcely  able 
to  have  deduced  any  such  logical  and  complete  array 
of  theological  opinions  as  are  to  be  found  in  his  books. 

At  the  same  time,  from  his  books  and  from  the  Separa- 
tist literature  in  general,  we  can  form  some  idea  of  Pil- 
grim worship,  government,  and  theology  at  this  time.2 

by  a  true  minister,  or  by  a  false  minister,  or  by  no  minister,  or 
by  reading,  conference,  or  any  other  means  of  publishing  it,  two 
or  three  faithful  people  do  arise,  separating  themselves  from  the 
world  into  the  fellowship  of  the  gospel  and  covenant  of  Abraham, 
they  are  a  Church  truly  gathered,  though  never  so  weak — a  house 
and  temple  of  God  rightly  founded  upon  the  doctrine  of  the 
apostles  and  prophets,  Christ  himself  being  the  cornerstone." 
Ash  ton,  Works  of  Robinson,  II,  232-3. 

1  Ozora  S.  Davis,  John  Robinson,  The  Pilgrim  Pastor.  Introduc- 
tion by  Professor  Williston  Walker.    Boston,  1903. 

2  Walter  H.  Burgess,  John  Smith,  the  Se-Baptist,  Thomas  Helwys 


42  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

The  Service  began  with  an  entirely  extemporaneous 
prayer  by  the  Pastor  or  Teacher,  no  book  or  form  of 
words  being  permitted.  Then  followed  the  reading  of 
two  or  three  chapters  of  the  Bible  in  English,  with  a 
liberal  paraphrase  of  the  passage  by  the  Teacher  or 
Elder.  A  psalm  was  then  sung  in  English  without  the 
accompaniment  of  any  musical  instrument.  Next  came 
the  sermon,  in  which  the  Pastor  expounded  Doctrine  or 
explained  the  application  of  Scripture  to  their  individual 
conduct.  A  second  psalm  was  sung  or  perhaps  several, 
after  which  at  stated  times  the  Lord's  Supper  and  Bap- 
tism were  performed.  Lastly  a  collection  Was  made,  the 
proceeds  of  which  were  devoted  to  the  salaries  of  the 
officers  and  the  needs  of  the  poor.  They  used  the  Geneva 
Bible  and  Ainsworth's  translation  of  the  psalms  in  prose 
and  meter,  published  in  London  in  1612.  This  they 
brought  to  Plymouth  with  them  and  used  it  there  until 
1696.  It  contained  beside  "singing  notes,  graver  and 
easier  French  and  Dutch  tunes."  Winslow  wrote  later 
with  great  enthusiasm  of  the  volume  of  tone  and  the 
fervor  of  the  singing  at  Plymouth. 

Questions  of  discipline  were  commonly  disposed  of 
after  the  Sunday  service  by  the  Pastor  and  Elder,  with 
the  cooperation  of  .the  Church.  They  attempted  to 
govern  themselves  and  as  far  as  possible  to  make  the 
intervention  of  the  Dutch  authorities  unnecessary.  Dis- 
putes with  each  other,  whatever  the  occasion,  economic 
as  well  as  theological,  they  decided  in  this  Church  meet- 
ing or  by  private  conversation  between  Robinson  and 

and  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  England,  with  Fresh  Light  upon  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers'  Church,  London,  191 1,  pp.  364,  gives  special 
detail  about  Smith's  Church  at  Gainsborough,  and  believes  him  the 
leader  and  originator  of  the  Scrooby  Church  and  its  ideas. 


The  Hardness  of  Life  in  Holland  43 

those  involved.  Bradford  boasts  that  they  never  both- 
ered the  magistrates  of  the  city,  meaning  no  doubt  that 
this  government  was  almost  invariably  successful.  He 
also  praises  Robinson's  wisdom  in  settling  disputes. 
The  Church  was  distinguished  from  the  other  Separatist 
Churches  by  the  extent  of  the  power  possessed  by  the 
members  of  the  Church  in  contra-distinction  to  the 
officers.  The  Pastor  and  Elder  submitted  to  a  majority 
vote  all  questions  of  importance  and  very  many  of  no 
great  significance.1  The  tendency  at  Amsterdam  was 
toward  an  increase  of  the  power  of  the  officers,  once 
elected,  and  the  reduction  to  a  minimum  of  the  power 
of  the  congregation.  To  Johnson  and  Ains worth,  the 
people  were  ignorant  of  affairs  and  their  decisions  largely 
unintelligent  or  inexpedient.  Discussions  in  meeting  led 
to  vehement  quarrels  and  noisy  disputes  without  com- 
mensurate result  and  some  glib  talker  often  succeeded 
in  carrying  a  vote  contrary  to  the  intentions  of  the  of- 
ficers. Robinson  and  his  followers,  however,  declared 
these  objections  of  no  moment  and  even  permitted  a 
discussion  of  the  officers'  conduct  and  their  censure  by 
majority  vote  of  the  members  on  any  occasion. 

Upon  doctrine,  their  views  were  at  once  less  original 
and  less  precise,  a  natural  corollary  of  their  complete 
absorption  in  the  question  of  church  government  and 
the  proper  type  of  worship.  They  no  doubt  followed 
Robinson  in  his  espousal  of  conservative  Calvinism,  ac- 

1  See  Robinson's  On  Religious  Communion,  Private  and  Public, 
1614.  This  is  the  most  elaborate  statement  of  his  earlier  ideas.  His 
lust  and  Necessarie  Apologie,  1619,  compares  the  practice  of 
his  congregation  with  that  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Churches  and 
indicates  their  practice  at  the  moment  of  emigration.  Further 
light  comes  from  the  note  drawn  up  for  the  Virginia  Company 
quoted  in  Bradford's  History,  44,  45  (Edition  of  1898). 


44  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

cepting  fully  the  doctrine  of  the  Elect,  of  Predestination, 
and  all  that  they  involved.  They  also  championed  the 
right  of  investigation  in  the  Scriptures  for  all  individuals 
and  soon  found  that  this  type  of  defense  for  their  own 
secession  from  the  Papacy  and  the  Established  Church 
involved  permission  to  their  own  members  to  differ 
from  the  Minister  and  the  majority  in  their  reading  of 
Scripture.  Insensibly  the  influence  of  the  Dutch  and 
English  churches  near  them  were  modifying  the  ideas 
of  the  rank  and  file,  and  stimulated  a  searching  and 
reading,  a  discussing  and  propounding,  which  not  only 
led  " unstable  wills  and  feeble  intelligences"  into  dan- 
gerous waters  but  tended  to  keep  constantly  alive  active 
controversy  as  to  the  validity  of  their  own  fundamental 
conclusions.  Their  own  position  contained  the  seeds  of 
dissension  and  dissolution.  They  saw  the  Separatist 
congregations  at  Amsterdam,  one  after  another,  dis- 
solved by  the  gradual  defection  of  their  members  or 
violently  rent  asunder  by  disagreement.  They  saw 
the  Dutch  churches  threatened  with  schism  over  the 
Arminian  controversy.  Europe  was  too  crowded  with 
churches  and  contentions.  While  they  remained  there, 
dispute  and  recrimination,  quarrelling  and  defections 
of  members  would  continue,  if  indeed  they  escaped 
the  fate  of  Ainsworth's  and  Smyth's  churches.  They 
must  find  a  place  where  they  might  isolate  the  fickle 
and  inconstant  minds  of  the  majority  from  other  influ- 
ences. "The  place  they  had  thoughts  on  was  some  of 
those  vast  and  unpeopled  countries  of  America,  which 
are  frutful  and  fitt  for  habitation:  being  devoyd  of  all 
civill  inhabitants;  wher  ther  are  only  salvage  and  brutish 
men,  which  range  up  and  downl  itle  otherwise  than  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  same." 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CRITICAL  DECISION 

Probably  for  some  weeks,  if  not  months,  in  the  winter 
of  1 616-17,  exceedingly  active  discussions  took  place 
in  the  great  house  on  the  Kloksteeg  which  they  used 
as  an  assembly  hall.  Many  were  terrified  at  the  very 
idea  of  the  New  World  and  alleged  the  danger  of  ship- 
wreck, the  bad  sanitation  of  ships  at  that  time,  famine, 
nakedness,  and  want.1  Some  supposed  that  "the  change 
of  air  and  diet"  and,  curiously  enough  to  us,  the  drink- 
ing of  water  would  infect  their  bodies  with  loathsome 
diseases.2  Some,  drawing  no  doubt  upon  the  highly 
imaginative  accounts  of  the  early  authors  upon  America, 
declared  that  the  Indians  flayed  men  with  the  shells  of 
fishes,  and  cut  off  steaks  and  chops,  which  they  then 
broiled  upon  the  coals  before  the  victim's  eyes.  From 
these  terrifying  images,  the  objectors  passed  to  the  great 
sums  of  money  needed  to  outfit  the  expedition  and  the 
very  pregnant  argument  that,  if  it  had  been  difficult 
for  them  to  make  a  living  in  a  rich  and  populous  country 
like  Holland,  what  could  they  expect  of  a  new  world 
peopled  only  by  Indians  and  Spaniards.  Nor  did  they 
fail  to  dilate  upon  the  lamentable  failure  of  many  at- 

1  Bradford  is  our  chief  authority.  Winslow's  account  in  his 
Hypocrisy  Unmasked,  London,  1646,  is  brief  and  adds  little  of 
value. 

2  Nevertheless,  Bradford  writing  in  1643,  records  his  surprise 
that  the  change  of  air  and  food,  the  "much  drinking  of  water," 
afl  of  them  "enemies  to  health,"  should  not  have  been  fatal  to 
most  of  them.    History,  494. 

45 


46  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

tempts  to  settle  the  New  World  nor  to  expatiate  upon 
the  cruelty  of  the  Spaniards  and  their  treatment  of  the 
French  Huguenots  in  Florida. 

Bradford  has  eloquently  phrased  the  argument  of  the 
majority  to  which  he  belonged.  "It  was  answered,  that 
all  great  and  honourable  actions  are  accompanied  with 
great  difficulties,  and  must  be  both  enterprised  and  over- 
come with  answerable  courages.  It  was  granted  the 
dangers  were  great,  but  not  desperate;  the  difficulties 
were  many,  but  not  invincible.  For  though  their  were 
many  of  them  likly,  yet  they  were  not  cartaine;  it 
might  be  sundrie  of  the  things  feared  might  never  befale; 
others  by  providente  care  &  the  use  of  good  means, 
might  in  a  great  measure  be  prevented;  and  all  of  them, 
through  the  help  of  God,  by  fortitude  and  patience, 
might  either  be  borne,  or  overcome.  True  it  was,  that 
such  atempts  were  not  to  be  made  and  undertaken 
without  good  ground  &  reason;  not  rashly  or  lightly 
as  many  have  done  for  curiositie  or  hope  of  gaine,  &c. 
But  their  condition  was  not  ordinarie;  their  ends  were 
good  and  honourable;  their  calling  lawfull,  &  urgente; 
and  therfore  they  might  expecte  the  blessing  of  God  in 
their  proceding.  Yea,  though  they  should  loose  their 
lives  in  this*  action,  yet  might  they  have  comforte  in 
the  same,  and  their  endeavors  would  be  honourable. 
They  lived  hear  but  as  men  in  exile,  &  in  a  poore  condi- 
tion; and  as  great  miseries  might  possibly  befale  them 
in  this  place,  for  ye  12.  years  of  truce  were  now  out,  & 
ther  was  nothing  but  beating  of  drumes,  and  preparing 
for  warr,  the  events  wherof  are  allway  uncertaine. 
The  Spaniard  might  prove  as  cruell  as  the  salvages  of 
America,  and  the  famine  and  pestelence  as  sore  hear  as 
ther,  &  their  libertie  less  to  looke  out  for  remedie." 


The  Critical  Decision  47 

Having  thus  threshed  out  the  general  issue  of  going 
to  the  New  World,  a  solemn  vote  was  taken  and  a  ma- 
jority voted  in  the  affirmative.  The  debate  now  turned 
to  the  wide  field  of  the  superior  advantages  of  one  loca- 
tion over  another.  A  minority,  small  in  numbers  but 
considerable  in  influence,  was  exceedingly  anxious  to 
settle  in  Guiana  or  in  some  part  of  the  West  Indies  not 
yet  occupied  by  Spaniards.1  The  fertility  of  the  tropics 
would  guarantee  the  subsistence  of  the  colony;  the  cli- 
mate would  make  unnecessary  many  of  the  provisions 
for  comfort  which  a  colder  climate  would  make  impera- 
tive; perhaps  from  the  precious  metals,  unquestionably 
from  trade,  the  wealth  of  the  little  community  might 
be  assured  and  its  permanence  guaranteed.  The  ma- 
jority feared  death  from  tropical  diseases  and  the  hos- 
tility of  the  Spaniards.  Neither  party  thought  James- 
town and  the  Chesapeake  desirable.  Why  should  they 
have  fled  from  England,  if  now,  after  having  suffered 
and  sacrificed  so  much,  they  were  to  transplant  them- 
selves to  a  colony  in  which  Episcopacy  was  already  es- 
tablished? 

The  alternative  plan  to  settlement  in  the  West  Indies 
at  last  reached  expression  in  a  definite  determination, 
as  Bradford  says,  "to  live  as  a  distincte  body  by  them- 
selves" in  the  general  territory  assigned  to  the  Virginia 
Company  by  the  royal  charter,  but  in  comparative  isola- 
tion from  the  settlements  already  made.  Protection 
from  the  Indians  and  from  the  Spanish  they  must  have 

1  Raleigh's  account  of  Guiana  was  not  that  used  by  the  Pilgrims. 
Mr.  Deane  suggests  in  his  notes  to  Bradford's  History  that  Robert 
Harcourt's  A  Relation  of  a  Voyage  to  Guiana,  made  in  1609,  pub- 
lished in  1613-14,  is  the  most  probable  source  of  their  information. 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  4th  Series,  III,  27. 


48  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

and  it  must  come  from  some  organized  nation.  Their 
marked  desire  to  preserve  their  nationality,  to  perpetuate 
their  English  speech  and  habits,  to  prevent #  their  chil- 
dren from  becoming  Dutchmen  made  residence  in  Eng- 
lish territory  a  foregone  conclusion.  But  they  were 
anxious  that  this  residence  under  the  English  flag  should 
be  nominal  and  not  result  in  control  by  the  state,  which 
might  in  its  own  turn  entail  supervision  from  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  Independence  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  they 
were  determined  to  obtain  and  they  saw  clearly  that  it 
would  involve  a  much  more  extended  independence  in 
temporal  affairs  than  they  could  ever  enjoy  in  England 
or  in  Holland,  or  indeed  anywhere  except  in  the  isolation 
of  a  new  country.  For  this  reason  the  decision  taken 
to  go  was  at  the  same  time  a  definite  decision  to  take  up 
permanent  residence  in  the  New  World. 

They  saw  at  the  outset  therefore  that  everything 
would  turn  upon  the  question  of  subsistence.  *  Their 
plan  was  simple  but  practical  and  was  entirely  in  con- 
formity with  the  definite  knowledge  already  attained 
about  the  locality.  For  a  great  many  years,  relatively 
small  ships  had  been  accustomed  to  sail  across  the  At- 
lantic from  England,  Holland,  and  France  to  fish  on  the 
Grand  Banks  for  cod,  to  buy  furs  from  the  Indians  in 
exchange  for  trinkets,  and  to  return  again  in  the  autumn 
with  a  cargo  of  salt  fish  and  pelts,  which  was  without 
difficulty  sold  at  a  fair  profit.  Why  should  not  a  resident 
colony  support  itself  upon  precisely  the  same  traffic? 
The  men  of  the  colony  would  spend  the  greater  part  of 
their  time,  not  upon  shore  in  the  town  and  in  the  fields, 
but  away  from  home  engaged  in  trade.  Houses  there 
would  be  to  build,  fields  to  be  tilled,  conveniences  must 
be  made,  no  doubt  clothing  woven  and  prepared,  but 


* 


v; 


)V 


^ 


mi 


> 


»  j ! 


The  Critical  Decision  49 

subsistence  was  not  to  depend  upon  the  efforts  of  the 
colonists  in  America.1  This  was  indeed  a  sound  plan, 
entirely  in  accordance  with  the  experience  of  Europeans 
in  Northern  America,  and  merely  demanded  of  the  Pil- 
grims the  ability  to  do  what  others  had  done  before 
them.  Such  examination  as  they  made  convinced  them 
that  the  outlay  of  money,  ordinarily  involved  in  such  a 
trading  venture,  was  small  and  such  as  they  them- 
selves and  their  immediate  friends  could  subscribe.  The 
financing  of  the  expedition  was  therefore  not  the  as- 
pect about  which  they  needed  most  to  concern  them- 
selves. 

The  vital  issue  seemed  rather  to  be  their  ability  to 
establish  in  the  New  World  the  kind  of  a  political  and 
ecclesiastical  community  they  had  in  mind,  free  from 
interference  from  Europe  or  from  resident  authority  in 
America.  Argue  as  they  would,  they  could  not  con- 
vince themselves  that  some  kind  of  formal  permission 
from  the  King  would  not  be  essential  to  ensure  any 
degree  of  religious  toleration.  Their  presence  in  the 
New  World  could  hardly  be  kept  secret  and  they  feared 
that,  if  they  landed  without  authorization,  subsequent 
investigation  would  entail  supervision  and  claims  to  the 
exercise  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority,  which  they 
had  no  intention  of  recognizing.  Better  to  stay  in 
Holland  or  return  to  England  than  incur  the  perils  and 
expense  of  a  voyage  to  America,  only  to  find  themselves 
under  that  same  comparative  constraint,  from  which 

1This  important  point  has  not  been  sufficiently  emphasized. 
See  Bradford's  own  statements,  History,  55,  72;  the  conditions 
with  the  Adventurers,  quoted,  id.,  57;  Robinson's  letter,  quoted 
id.,  60;  Cushman's  letters,  quoted,  id.,  65,  67;  Winslow,  Hypocrisy 
Unmasked,  89,  90,  London,  1646. 


5<d  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

they  had  fled  in  England,  and  which  they  found  still 
unsatisfactory  in  Holland. 

They  felt,  too,  that  there  was  more  than  a  fair  chance, 
that  consent  might  be  obtained  to  such  an  arrangement 
as  they  had  in  mind,  because  of  the  importance  in  the 
London  branch  of  the  Virginia  Company  of  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys.1  The  Brewsters,  father  and  son,  had  been 
postmasters  at  Scrooby  during  the  period  when  the 
father  of  Sir  Edwin  had  been  Archbishop  of  York,  and, 
while  we  may  not  perhaps  assume  that  they  had  been 
friends  of  Sir  Edwin  as  a  boy,  Brewster  was  at  least 
known  favorably  to  Sandys  as  a  man  of  tried  probity 
and  ability.  That  Sandys  had,  like  his  father,  strong 
leanings  toward  Puritanism  was  of  course  well  known 
to  them,  and  upon  that  fact  they  undoubtedly  counted 
to  enlist  his  sympathy  in  their  project.  Brewster  should 
vouch  for  the  seriousness  of  their  purpose  and .  their 
probable  ability  to  found  and  maintain  a  colony.  That 
the  Virginia  Company  was  more  than  anxious  for  Col- 
onists they  well  knew;  that  it  was  more  than  ready  to 
pay  the  expense  of  transporting  to  America  those  who 
were  willing  to  go,  they  were  also  aware;  they  them- 
selves therefore,  who  were  not  asking  at  this  time  finan- 
cial support  but  merely  the  permission  to  "plant,"  ought 
consequently  to  receive  a  hearty  welcome  and  liberal 
treatment.  While  they  recognized  that  their  compara- 
tive freedom  under  the  Company's  jurisdiction  would 

1  Arber  has  elaborately  reprinted  in  his  Story  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  all  the  relevant  material  concerning  the  negotiations  with 
the  State,  with  the  Virginia  Company,  with  the  Council  for  New 
England,  and  with  the  Adventurers.  His  attempts  at  meticulous 
criticism,  however,  should  be  carefully  scrutinized,  as  should  those 
of  Ames,  in  his  Log  of  the  Mayflower,  on  this  same  phase  of  the 
narrative. 


The  Critical  Decision  51 

be  entirely  dependent  upon  their  ability  to  finance  the 
enterprise  themselves,  they  entertained  at  this  time 
no  doubts  upon  this  point. 

In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  161 7,  Deacon  John 
Carver  and  Robert  Cushman  went  to  London  to  open 
negotiations  with  the  Virginia  Company,  and  carried 
with  them  Seven  Articles,  which  were  to  explain  the 
notions  of  the  intending  planters  about  religious  con- 
formity and  toleration.1  They  would  subscribe  to  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  in  the  same  sense  in  which  the 
"  Reformed  Churches  where  we  live  and  also  elsewhere  " 
accepted  them.  They  would  acknowledge  the  doctrine 
taught  in  the  Church  of  England  and  its  fruits  and 
effects  "to  the  begetting  of  saving  faith  in  thousands  in 
the  land,  Conformists  and  Reformists  as  they  are  called; 
with  whom  also,  as  with  our  brethren,  we  did  desire  to 
keep  spiritual  communion  in  peace;  and  will  practise 
in  our  parts  all  lawful  things."  This  vagueness  as  to 
the  identity  of  those  who  were  saved  and  of  those  with 
whom  the  Pilgrims  proposed  to  keep  spiritual  com- 
munion was  intentional.  They  would  accept  the  royal 
supremacy  without  reservation,  but  added  a  not  wholly 
fortunate  clause,  stating  that  "in  all  things  obedience  is 
due  unto  him  either  active,  if  the  thing  commanded  be 
not  against  God's  Word,  or  passive  if  it  be,  except  par- 
don can  be  obtained."  This  certainly  left  them  to  judge 
whether  the  royal  commands  possessed  or  lacked  Scrip- 
tural warrant.  Similarly,  they  accepted  the  power  of 
the  Bishops  and  its  lawfullness  to  govern  the  Church 
"civilly,"  and  in  so  far  as  they  derived  that  authority 
from  the  King,   denying  that  ecclesiastical   authority 

1  State  Papers  Colonial,  I,  No.  43.  Copy.  Most  of  the  corre- 
spondence referred  to  in  the  text  is  quoted  by  Bradford. 


52  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

could  be  exercised  which  the  civil  magistrate  did  not 
recognize. 

The  remarkable  fact  about  these  Articles  is  that  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys  felt  such  statements  would  meet  the  ap- 
proval of  the  King  and  the  ecclesiastics.  Carver  and 
Cushman  conducted  themselves  in  a  manner  thoroughly 
agreeable  to  the  authorities  of  the  Virginia  Company, 
who  wrote  in  November  an  encouraging  letter  to  Robin- 
son and  Brewster  at  Leyden.  This  drew  from  them  in 
return  rather  more  specific  and  open  statements  of  their 
intentions  and  motives.  They  enlarged  upon  their 
industry  and  frugality,  upon  their  readiness  and  ability 
to  undergo  hardship  and  misfortune  with  patience  and 
equanimity.  "It  is  not  with  us  as  with  other  men 
whom  small  things  can  discourage  or  small  discontent- 
ments cause  to  wish  them  selves  at  home  againe."  The 
trials  and  privations  of  the  New  World  did  not  terrify 
them,  nor  would  the  failure  of  the  proposed  colony  be 
due  to  their  remissness  or  want  of  diligence.  They  spoke 
in  addition  quite  frankly  of  their  Separatism.  "We 
are  knite  togeather  as  a  body  in  a  most  stricte  &  sacred 
bond  and  covenante  of  the  Lord,  of  the  violation  wherof 
we  make  great  conscience,' '  and  which  they  felt  made 
them  mutually  responsible  for  each  other's  welfare  and 
safety,  and  thus  more  than  ordinarily  satisfactory  as 
prospective  colonists."  This  letter  too  met  with  ap- 
proval. The  Seven  Articles  seem  to  have  been  shown 
to  several  members  of  the  Privy  Council  in  the  month 
of  December,  1617,  or  at  the  latest  very  early  in  January, 
1 6 18,  for  we  find  Robinson  and  Brewster  writing  late 
in  that  same  month  a  further  message  of  explanation  to 
an  eminent  member  of  the  Virginia  Company,  Sir  John 
Wostleholme. 


The  Critical  Decision  53 

Three  points,  they  say,  had  been  raised  by  members 
of  the  Privy  Council;  their  answer  makes  it  evident 
that  these  concerned  the  institution  of  Bishops,  the 
Sacraments,  and  their  willingness  to  take  the  oath  of 
Supremacy  without  qualification  or  reservation.  They 
enclosed  two  replies,  a  brief  statement  which  they 
thought  more  likely  to  meet  approval,  and  a  much  more 
explicit  statement  which  they  feared  the  Bishops  might 
not  like;  they  requested  their  sponsors  to  choose  between 
them.  The  most  that  they  would  concede  in  regard  to 
the  Church  authorities  was  an  acceptance  of  the  provi- 
sions of  the  French  Reformed  Churches  according  to 
their  public  confession  of  faith.  The  Oath  of  Supremacy 
they  agreed  to  take  without  reservation,  if  the  authorities 
insisted  upon  it,  but  they  indicated  their  preference  for 
the  Oath  of  Allegiance,  a  form  expressly  intended  for 
Catholics  who  were  attempting  to  make  mental  reserva- 
tions in  regard  to  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  and  to 
which  therefore  the  Pilgrims  would  be  able  to  subscribe 
with  eminently  clear  consciences.  These  two  points 
comprised  the  shorter  form.  The  larger  form  particu- 
larized certain  points  in  which  they  differed  from  the 
French  Churches,  and  which  proved  beyond  all  possible 
question  that  the  Congregation  elected  the  Church 
officers,  and  that  the  government  of  the  Church  had 
nothing  to  do  with  Bishops  nor  provided  any  place  for 
them. 

The  letter  with  its  enclosure  was  forwarded  to  a  well- 
known  Separatist  at  London,  Sabine  Staresmore,  who 
delivered  it  about  the  middle  of  February  to  Wostle- 
holme.  The  latter  read  both  the  letter  and  its  enclosures 
in  Staresmore's  presence,  and  then  asked  him,  "who 
shall  make  them,',  meaning  of  course  the  ministers. 


54  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 


cc  l 


I  answered  His  Worship  that  the  power  of  making 
was  in  the  Church  to  be  ordained  by  the  Imposition  of 
Hands  by  the  fittest  instruments  they  had.  It  must  either 
be  in  the  Church  or  from  the  Pope  and  the  Pope  is  Anti- 
christ.' 'Ho!'  said  Sir  John,  'What  the  Pope  houlds 
good  (as  in  the  Trinitie)  that  we  doe  well  to  assente  to 
but,  said  he,  we  will  not  enter  into  dispute  now.' "  He  en- 
couraged Staresmore  to  believe  that  what  they  wished 
could  be  obtained,  but  he  told  him  quite  frankly  that  it 
was  utterly  useless  to  present  those  documents. 

Sometime  during  the  next  two  months  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys,  Sir  Robert  Naunton,  then  Secretary  of  State, 
and  perhaps  some  other  gentlemen,  broached  this  ques- 
tion to  the  King.  James  asked  how  they  expected  to 
support  themselves  when  they  got  to  America.  And 
their  friends  replied  by  fishing,  "  to  which  he  replied  with 
his  ordinary  asseveration,  'So  God  have  my  soul!  'tis  an 
honest  trade!  it  was  the  Apostles'  own  calling!'"  He 
gave  the  gentlemen  to  understand  that  the  idea  met  his 
approval.  Sometime  later,  probably  during  the  summer 
of  the  year  1618,  he  asked  them  to  confer  about  it  with 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  London. 

Early  in  the  autumn  of  this  same  year,  the  Church  at 
Leyden  learned  of  the  unfortunate  case  of  Francis  Black- 
well.  He  had  been  an  Elder  in  the  Ancient  Church  of 
Johnston  and  Ainsworth  at  Amsterdam,  with  which  they 
had  already  had  so  many  dealings,  and  from  which  had 
come  Bradford's  bride  and  possibly  other  members  of 
their  own  Church.  When  theological  dissensions  had 
riven  the  organization,  Blackwell  and  part  of  the  mem- 
bers had  decided  to  try  their  fortunes  in  Virginia,  and 
had  journeyed  to  London  preparatory  to  embarkation. 
There  they  had  attended  "a  conventicle,"  had  been 


The  Critical  Decision  55 

apprehended,  and  found  themselves  in  jail.  This  Black- 
well's  friends  in  London  and  Leyden  could  well  have 
forgiven  him  had  he  not,  as  Bradford  says,  " glossed" 
with  the  Bishops,  denied  his  Separation  from  the  Church 
of  England  and  its  validity,  and  taken  the  oaths  tendered 
him.  The  Bishops  gave  him  their  blessing,  released  him 
from  jail,  and  sent  him  on  his  way  to  Virginia.  Stares- 
more,  whom  Blackwell  also  implicated,  wrote  from  the 
Counter  Prison  in  intense  indignation  to  Carver  at 
Leyden.  They  also  remembered  that  Johnston,  Studley, 
and  two  other  leaders  of  this  same  group  of  Separatists 
in  1597  had  been  shipped  by  the  Privy  Council  to  New- 
foundland with  a  trading  company,  on  the  condition 
that  they  should  never  be  allowed  to  return.  When  the 
venture  failed,  they  had  returned  with  the  remnant  of 
the  colonists  and  had  escaped  to  Amsterdam.1 

The  King's  request  that  they  should  confer  with  the 
Archbishop  and  the  Bishop  of  London  therefore  roused 
the  suspicions  of  the  leaders  at  Leyden.  They  decided 
now  to  give  up  any  attempt  to  secure  an  explicit  recogni- 
tion of  their  religious  non-conformity  before  leaving 
Holland.  "If  after  wards  ther  should  be  a  purpose  or 
desire  to  wrong  them,  though  they  had  a  seale  as  broad  as 
the  house  flore  it  would  not  serve  the  turn;  for  ther 
would  be  means  enew  found  to  recall  or  reverse  it." 
Indeed  they  much  regretted  what  they  had  already  done 
and  such  incomplete  revealings  of  their  identity  as  had 
already  been  inevitable.  The  all  important  thing  now 
was  to  confess  nothing  further,  either  of  their  intentions 
or  their  personnel. 

1  Privy  Council  Register,  New  Series,  March  25,  1597.  Hakluyt, 
Voyages,  Ed.  18 10,  III,  242-9. 


CHAPTER  V 

WAYS  AND  MEANS 

None  the  less,  throughout  the  autumn  of  1618  and  a 
considerable  part  of  the  winter  of  161 9  the  discussions  at 
Leyden  continued.1  In  April,  Cushman  and  Brewster 
again  opened  negotiations  with  the  Virginia  Company, 
but  found  considerable  difficulty  for  a  time  in  reaching 
any  conclusion,  because  of  the  internal  dissensions  within 
the  Company  itself,  until  these  were  finally  settled  toward 
the  end  of  April  by  the  election  to  the  Treasurership  of 
Sir  Edwin  Sandys.  His  advent  resulted  in  favorable 
action  by  the  Company  on  May  26  on  the  Pilgrims' 
request  for  a  charter,  for  which  they  applied  in  the  name 
of  Mr.  John  Wincob,  "a  religious  gentleman  belonging 
to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln. "  A  patent  to  him  was  sealed 
on  June  9,  16 19.  Technical  anonymity  was  thus  secured, 
but  their  connection  with  him  was  no  doubt  known  to  a 
considerable  number  of  people.    How  far  they  proceeded 

1  The  exact  chronology  and  the  sequence  of  events  in  this,  as  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  can  not  be  established  by  direct  evidence. 
Arber  in  his  Story  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  Ames  in  his  Log  of 
the  Mayflower  have  made  elaborate  attempts  to  construct  a  de- 
tailed narrative,  but  the  student  should  remember  that  neither 
has  succeeded  in  most  cases  in  suggesting  solutions  which  are 
better  than  bare  possibilities.  The  account  in  the  text  is  based 
upon  a  fresh  study  of  the  material  and  differs  somewhat  in  chro- 
nology and  in  sequence  of  events  from  the  accounts  hitherto  pub- 
lished, but  makes  no  pretensions  to  a  finality  which  the  character 
of  existing  material  and  the  actual  lack  of  evidence  makes  im- 
possible. 

56 


Ways  and  Means  57 

during  the  summer  of  16 19  with  their  plans  to  utilize 
this  patent  is  not  known,  but  in  the  autumn  news  was 
sent  them  by  Cushman  in  London  of  the  extremely 
unfortunate  results  of  the  expedition  to  Virginia  of 
Blackwell  and  their  old  Amsterdam  friends  which  caused 
them  to  change  their  minds.  The  voyage  had  been  long 
and  tedious;  so  many  had  gone  upon  the  ship  that  "they 
were  packed  together  like  'herrings  " ;  voyagers  and  crew 
had  died  for  want  of  fresh  water,  from  over-crowding, 
from  lack  of  proper  food.  Blackwell  was  dead,  wrote 
Cushman,  the  captain  likewise;  and  the  survivors  had 
returned  "with  great  mutterings  and  repinings  amongst 
them." 

Undoubtedly  this  news  convinced  the  Pilgrims  that 
their  original  plans  could  not  be  executed.  A  larger 
vessel  would  be  essential  and  more  considerable  supplies 
of  food  and  clothing,  enough  indeed  to  carry  them  well 
through  the  first  year.  Their  own  resources  and  the  very 
limited  financial  competence  of  their  immediate  friends 
in  Leyden  and  London  were  unable  to  cope  with  such  a 
problem,  and  they  concluded  definitely  that  they  must 
secure  the  cooperation  of  a  body  of  men,  resident  in 
England  or  in  Holland,  sufficiently  wealthy  to  provide 
the  necessities,  and  sufficiently  interested  in  the  venture 
to  insure  the  continuity  of  their  assistance.1  They  must 
aim  at  more  than  subsistence.  They  must  attempt  a 
venture  which  would  produce  a  profit. 

They  now  received  from  Dutch  capitalists  or  magis- 
trates in  January,  1620,  an  offer  of  conveyance  to  the 
New  World,  with  a  guarantee  of  continuous  and  adequate 

1  Such  statements  as  this  can  not  be  supported  by  direct  evidence 
but  are  implied  by  the  sequence  of  events  definitely  established 
by  the  correspondence  in  Bradford. 


58  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

support  of  so  generous  and  definitive  a  nature  that  they 
scarcely  dared  refuse  it.  A  suggestion  was  also  made  that 
they  settle  upon  somewhat  similar  terms  on  the  island  of 
Zeeland  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine.  Obviously,  the  fact 
that  they  were  looking  for  capital  to  support  a  venture  in 
America  had  leaked  out  in  Holland.  It  was  also  known 
in  London.  In  February  or  March  there  arrived  at 
Leyden  Thomas  Weston,  a  London  merchant,  a  Puritan 
if  not  a  Separatist,  a  man  already  acquainted  with  some 
of  them,  and  perhaps  associated  with  their  escape  from 
England  in  1608  or  with  the  dissemination  of  books  from 
the  Brewster  press.  In  his  own  name  and  that  of  other 
merchants,  his  friends,  he  promised  them  support  for 
their  voyage,  drew  up  definite  articles  which  they  deemed 
favorable,  and  in  particular  gave  them  his  personal 
guaranty  that  they  should  "neither  feare  wante  of 
shipping  nor  money,  for  what  they  wanted  should  be 
provided."  *  He  proposed  no  formal  incorporation,  for 
that  would  have  disclosed  necessarily  the  identity  they 
were  so  anxious  to  conceal,  but  merely  a  voluntary  asso- 
ciation of  the  capitalists  and  the  intending  colonists. 
A  patent  this  group  of  men  already  had,  granted  by  the 
xOf  Weston's  motives  for  this  proposition  we  are  utterly  ig- 
norant. The  attempt  of  Ames,  W.  T.  Davis,  and  others  to  ex- 
plain his  action  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  ingenuity  overreach- 
ing itself.  They  couple  this  difficulty  with  the  settlement  at  Plym- 
outh instead  of  on  the  Hudson  and  "demonstrate"  that  Weston 
and  Gorges  planned  to  steal  the  colony,  got  it  on  board  as  best 
they  could,  and  then  bribed  the  captain  to  land  it  within  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Council  for  New  England,  instead  of  in  that  of  the 
Virginia  Company.  The  only  direct  evidence  associated  with 
Plymouth,  that  of  Secretary  Morton,  writing  just  before  1669,  de- 
clares that  the  Dutch  bribed  Jones  to  land  them  outside  the  limits 
of  their  Patent!  Both  have  been  rejected  by  Arber,  Dexter,  and 
conservative  students  generally. 


Ways  and  Means  59 

Virginia  Company  on  February  2,  1620,  to  John  Peirce 
and  associates.  While  the  use  of  this  involved  the 
abandoning  of  the  Wincob  patent  already  secured,  it 
afforded  complete  anonymity,  for  the  Pilgrims  were  in  no 
way  connected  with  the  grantees  at  the  time  the  patent 
was  drawn.1 

Weston  proposed  a  partnership  to  last  seven  years  for  a 
venture  in  America  of  the  type  already  decided  upon  by 
the  Pilgrims.  They  should  establish  a  permanent  trading 
post  at  which  they  should  live,  from  which  as  a  base  of 
operations  they  should  trade  with  the  Indians  for  furs, 
fish  on  the  Grand  Banks,  cut  lumber  in  the  forests,  and 
perhaps  collect  sassafras  and  other  roots  then  salable  in 
England.  At  this  work  the  great  majority  should  be 
employed.  The  rest  were  to  build  houses,  till  the  ground, 
and  insure  the  permanence  of  the  trading  post.  The 
Adventurers,  as  capitalists  were  then  called,  were  t<$*^~ 
contribute  money,  or  provisions,  or  goods  for  trading, 
and  thus  finance  the  enterprise.  Every  colonist,  oi^ 
planter,  as  they  were  commonly  called,  was  to  be  rated 
at  ten  pounds;  every  adult  he  took  with  him  over  sixteen 
years  of  age  should  also  be  rated  at  ten  pounds  or  one 

1  Winslow  in  Hypocrisy  Unmasked,  pp.  89,  90,  London,  1646, 
can  be  interpreted  so  as  to  imply  the  contrary.  The  records  of 
the  Virginia  Company,  the  fact  that  the  Pilgrims'  negotiations 
with  Weston  were  certainly  subsequent  to  the  request  for  the 
Peirce  Patent,  if  not  to  its  granting,  the  subsequent  actions  of 
Peirce  himself,  make  the  statement  in  the  text  seem  more  prob- 
able than  other  conjectures.  We  must  not  forget  that  Winslow 
and  Bradford  wrote  long  after  these  events,  probably  without  the 
aid  of  memoranda  taken  at  the  time.  The  unreliability  of  human 
memory  is  well  attested  by  the  formal  deposition  of  Miles  Standish 
on  oath  in  1650,  in  a  law  suit  to  determine  the  priority  of  a  land 
title,  that  he  visited  Boston  Harbor  in  the  summer  of  1620!  Good- 
win, Pilgrim  Republic,  237,  note. 


60  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

share  of  this  joint  stock.  Money,  or  provisions,  or  goods 
contributed  by  the  planters  or  capitalists  should  also  be 
rated  in  multiples  of  ten.  Thus  the  joint  stock  would  be 
created  and  on  the  basis  of  these  shares  the  individual 
Adventurers  and  colonists  should  eventually  participate 
in  the  proceeds. 

Druing  seven  years  the  houses,  goods,  food,  apparel, 
and  the  like  should  belong  to  the  company  as  a  whole 
and  should  be  called  the  common  stock,  from  which  all 
members  of  the  colony  in  America  should  be  provided 
with  necessities.  Naturally  they  should  do  what  they 
could  in  America  to  add  to  this  common  stock  and  the 
Adventurers  pledged  themselves  to  supply  the  remainder. 
The  proceeds  of  the  trading  and  fishing  were  to  be  sold 
in  England  for  the  benefit  of  the  partnership,  and  it 
was  expected  that  the  profits  of  the  first  seven  years 
would  be  sufficiently  considerable  to  offset  the  original 
investment,  the  subsequent  necessary  payments  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  colony  in  America,  and  afford  be- 
sides a  reasonable  profit  to  the  Adventurers.  During 
the  seven  years  the  colonists  should  work  iour  days  a 
week  for  the  Adventurers  and, two  days  for  themselves, 
the  latter  to  be  spent  in  improving  the  permanent  plant 
in  America.  When  the  question  was  raised  as  to  what 
notion  of  diligence  and  of  effective  cooperation  the 
merchants  had,  Weston  gave  them  to  understand  that 
he  and  his  associates  would  gladly  leave  the  question 
of  diligence  to  their  own  consciences.  At  the  end  of 
seven  years  the  colony  itself,  the  houses  and  improved 
lands,  should  become  the  property  of  the  colonists.  The 
unimproved  land  should  be  divided  between  the  Adven- 
turers and  the  Planters,  each  to  dispose  of  its  share  as 
best  it  could,  and  the  profits  in  money,  in  goods,  or  in 


Ways  and  Means  61 

chattels  should  be  distributed  proportionately  to  the 
shares  contributed  by  each  Adventurer  or  colonist  in 
money,  goods,  or  his  own  value  as  a  laborer.  These 
terms  were  accepted.  A  paper  stating  the  conditions 
was  signed  by  the  officers  of  the  Church  and  by  Weston 
for  his  associates,  and  a  day  was  set  for  the  payment 
of  the  money  and  goods  which  the  Leyden  members 
were  to  contribute.  The  Dutch  offer  was  now  re- 
jected. 

They  now  fell  in  April  to  a  discussion  of  the  very  per- 
tinent issue,  how  many  could  go  and  how  many  were 
willing  to  go.  Even  with  the  cooperation  of  the  mer- 
chants, they  saw  that  only  a  part  of  the  Church  could 
migrate  and  decided  that,  if  the  major  part  voted  to  go, 
Robinson,  the  Minister,  should  go  with  them,  but  that, 
if  only  a  minority  voted  to  leave,  Brewster,  the  Elder, 
should  accompany  them.  Explicitly  they  provided  that 
each  part  was  to  form  "an  absolute  Church  of  them- 
selves" so  long  as  they  should  be  separated.  The  mi- 
nority wished  no  questions  raised  as  to  the  authority 
over  them  of  the  majority.  After  a  long  solemn  meet- 
ing, a  day  of  humiliation  and  perhaps  another  of  fasting, 
after  a  sermon  by  Robinson  many  hours  long,  the  vote 
was  cast,  and  showed  two  parts  nearly  equal,  the  larger 
of  which  had  elected  to  stay.  They  agreed  together 
however  that  if  the  venture  should  succeed  the  majority 
should  come  at  once  to  America,  and  on  the  other  hand, 
if  it  should  fail,  the  minority  should  return  to  Leyden 
with  all  speed.  Now  they  fell  to  work  upon  the  neces- 
sary arrangements.  Property  was  sold,  money  collected, 
goods  donated,  both  by  those  who  were  to  go  and  those 
who  were  to  stay.  This  during  April  and  May,  1620. 
At  the  end  of  April  or  early  in  May  a  small  ship  of  sixty 


62  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

tons,  the  Speedwell,  was  bought  and  refitted  at  Delfs- 
haven. 

Meantime  Weston  had  returned  to  London  and  had 
communicated  to  his  associates  the  terms  of  the  agree- 
ment. They  pointed  out  at  once  that  there  was  no 
collateral  whatever  to  insure  the  repayment  of  the  capi- 
tal; inasmuch  as  the  land  and  buildings  were  to  become 
the  property  of  the  colonists  at  the  end  of  seven  years, 
a  discharge  of  the  indebtedness  depended  entirely  upon 
the  making  of  a  profit  in  the  meantime.  While  they 
seem  to  have  had  no  doubts  of  the  moral  responsibility 
of  the  Pilgrims  l  and  their  willingness  and  readiness  to 
labor  hard  in  the  common  interest,  they  did  very  strongly 
question  their  ability  to  earn  so  great  a  profit.  To  put 
the  venture  upon  a  business  basis,  the  objectors  insisted 
that  the  tangible  property  at  the  end  of  the  seven  years, 
the  improved  lands  and  the  houses,  as  well  as  the  goods 
and  chattels,  must  be  subject  to  division  or  sale  in  the 
interests  of  Adventurers  and  Planters  alike.  Even  then 
the  merchants  would  risk  much,  for,  if  the  venture  was 
unsuccessful,  they  might  still  lose  everything,  although 
it  was  at  the  same  time  clear  that,  if  the  venture  suc- 
ceeded, they  would  on  this  basis  make  a  much  larger 
profit  than  they  were  entitled  to  under  the  existing 
agreement.  They  further  insisted  that  the  entire  efforts 
of  the  colonists  for  the  whole  seven  years  must  be  de- 
voted to  the  venture.  The  two  days  of  work  for  them- 
selves  seemed  to   the  merchants   a  loophole  through 

1  It  becomes  now  proper  to  speak  of  "the  Pilgrims."  It  is  cer- 
tainly uncritical  to  term  either  the  Scrooby  emigrants  or  Robin- 
son's Congregation  as  a  whole  "the  Pilgrims"  or  "the  Pilgrim 
Church";  until  those  who  were  finally  to  go  had  been  separated 
from  the  rest,  the  true  Pilgrim  body  had  not  come  into  existence. 


Ways  and  Means  63 

which  all  profit  would  escape.  Weston  and  Cushman, 
the  Pilgrims'  representative,  did  their  best  to  convince 
the  recalcitrant  merchants,  but  in  the  end  Cushman 
agreed  to  these  terms.  The  Adventurers  then  elected 
a  President  and  Treasurer  and  subscribed  the  necessary 
money  and  goods.  Christopher  Martin  was  chosen 
Treasurer  and  was  to  proceed  with  the  colonists  to 
America  as  representative  of  his  associates. 

When  the  news  of  Cushman's  concessions  reached 
Leyden,  active  discontent  burst  forth.  The  great  ma- 
jority of  the  Leyden  Church  had  been  agriculturalists  in 
England  and  were  familiar  with  the  difference  in  status 
under  the  old  manorial  system  of  a  tenant  or  villein,  who 
had  a  right  to  a  portion  of  his  time  for  himself,  and  that 
of  the  serf  who  had  no  time  to  himself,  had  no  property, 
and  was  without  prospect  of  any.  What  Cushman  had 
agreed  to  was  something  closely  akin  to  serfdom;  their 
legal  status  in  America  would  be  doubtful  and  compli- 
cated and  certainly  not  that  of  freemen  during  the 
seven  years.  They  were  familiar  with  the  practice  in 
Holland  and  England  of  apprenticeship  for  seven 
years.1  They  also  knew  of  the  existing  practice  by 
which  emigrants  sold  their  labor  for  seven  years  to 
the  capitalists  who  financed  their  voyage.  The  Leyden 
group  were  not  in  the  least  minded  to  land  in  America  as 
indentured  servants.  They  felt  themselves  no  common 
laborers.  As  free  men  and  not  otherwise  would  they 
land.  They  must  be  further  assured  of  possession  at 
the  end  of  the  seven  years  of  the  improved  lands  and 
buildings  which  their  labor  had  created.  Some  who  had 
expected  to  go  now  withdrew;  some  who  had  paid  in 
money  wished  it  returned;  a  number  of  the  more  promi- 
1  Bradford,  History,  58-62. 


\S 


64  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

nent  declared  flatly  that  they  would  never  leave  Leyden 
under  such  conditions,  and,  taking  refuge  in  the  fact 
that  Cushman  had  no  explicit  authority  to  sign  such 
an  agreement,  declared  it  accordingly  invalid.  Of  this 
decision  they  promptly  informed  Cushman  and  Weston 
in  vigorous  letters  of  protest  and  a  long  list  of  objections. 
Thus  matters  came  to  a  stand  in  Leyden. 

In  London,  too,  matters  were  at  a  stand.  The  plan 
of  operations,  based  upon  the  experiences  of  BlackwelPs 
company,  called  for  a  simultaneous  sailing  of  the  Leyden 
colonists  in  the  Speedwell  from  Holland  and  of  the  Eng- 
lish group  from  London,  for  a  meeting  at  Southampton, 
and  a  continuation  at  once  of  the  voyage  across  the 
Atlantic,  without  delay  or  opportunity  for  investigation 
by  the  English  authorities.  Ostensibly  certain  mer- 
chants, one  John  Peirce  and  others,  were  shipping  across 
the  Atlantic  in  traditional  style  two  cargoes  of  hired 
laborers.  In  Holland  the  Speedwell  had  been  bought 
and  fitted  out,  but  in  London  nothing  had  been  done 
towards  procuring  and  fitting  out  the  larger  ship  upon 
which  the  majority  of  the  colonists  expected  to  make 
the  voyage.  From  Leyden  came  urgent  letters  pointing 
out  the  necessity  of  immediate  action,  so  that  the  summer 
season,  the  favorable  time  for  settlement,  might  be 
utilized,  and  so  that  they  should  not  suffer  want  in 
Holland  now  that  their  property  had  been  sold  and 
their  preparations  made. 

Weston  and  his  associates  remained  undecided  and 
on  the  tenth  of  June  Cushman  wrote  a  most  discourag- 
ing letter  to  the  group  at  Leyden,  saying  that  nothing 
had  been  done,  that  they  had  underestimated  the  ex- 
pense and  difficulty  of  the  venture,  and  could  not  land 
in  America  any  such  number  of  people  with  any  such 


CONTEMPORARY   CUT   OF   SHIPS    OF   THE   MAYFLOWER   TYPE 


Ways  and  Means  65 

amount  of  goods  and  food  as  they  required.  On  that 
same  day,  however,  apparently  Saturday,  the  tenth 
of  June,  he  succeeded  in  convincing  Weston  of  the 
necessity  of  immediate  action.  That  afternoon,  they 
took  a  refusal  of  a  very  fine  ship  of  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  tons,  and  either  that  same  afternoon  or 
early  on  Monday  were  offered  a  much  larger  ship  of 
one  hundred  and  eighty  tons,  none  other  than  the 
famous  Mayflower,  owned  by  one  of  the  Adventurers, 
Thomas  Goffe.  A  Captain  Christopher  Jones  and  an 
experienced  mate  were  also  hired.  The  provisioning 
of  the  ship  went  forward  rapidly,  the  preparation  of  the 
company  at  London  to  sail  upon  her  proceeded  promptly, 
and  by  the  middle  of  July  all  was  ready. 

Meanwhile,  at  Leyden,  after  a  day  of  humiliation 
spent  at  Robinson's  house,  with  prayer,  fasting,  the 
singing  of  psalms,  a  long  sermon,  much  discussion,  and 
probably  some  sort  of  farewell  feast,  they  set  forth  on 
July  21-31,  1620,  Friday,  for  Delf shaven,  passing  down 
the  Vliet  on  canal  boats,  a  journey  of  about  twenty-four 
miles.  Transshipping  their  belongings  to  the  Speedwell, 
they  spent  the  night  in  "friendly  entertainment  and 
Christian  discourse, "  and  on  the  next  day  took  leave  on 
the  dock  of  such  friends  from  Leyden  and  Amsterdam 
as  had  come  to  see  them  depart.  They  then  went  on 
board,  and  Robinson,  "  falling  downe  on  his  knees, 
(and  they  all  with  him),  with  watrie  cheeks  commended 
them  with  most  fervente  praiers  to  the  Lord  and  his 
blessing.  And  then  with  mutuall  imbrases  and  many 
tears,  they  tooke  their  leaves  one  of  an  other;  which 
proved  to  be  the  last  leave  to  many  of  them." 

A  fair  wind  carried  them  in  four  days  to  Southamp- 
ton, where  they  found  the  Mayflower,  which,  sailing 


66  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

from  London  on  July  15-25,  had  been  there  a  week 
waiting  for  them.  They  also  found  Weston  and  Cush- 
man,  both  most  anxious  that  the  articles  as  amended 
by  the  merchants  should  be  signed  by  the  principal 
members  now  arrived  from  Leyden.  Long  argument 
only  developed  excessive  obstinacy  on  both  sides  and 
Weston  finally,  becoming  very  angry,  told  them  "to 
look  to  stand  on  their  own  legs,"  and  left  for  London 
without  paying  the  port  dues  of  nearly  £100.  Appre- 
hensive of  investigation  by  the  authorities  and  the  dis- 
closure of  their  identity,  they  quickly  sold  some  firkins 
of  butter,  raised  the  money,  and  thus  cleared  port. 
Their  fears  of  ecclesiastical  and  temporal  interference 
proved  unfounded,  for  no  investigations  were  made  or 
questions  asked  at  London,  Southampton,  Dartmouth, 
or  Plymouth.  At  about  this  time  Captain  John  Smith, 
who  had  done  so  much  for  the  first  colony  at  Jamestown, 
made  some  overtures  to  the  Pilgrims.  Good  advice  and 
information  about  conditions  on  the  Atlantic  coast  he 
claims  that  he  offered  and  that  they  rejected.  Possibly 
he  offered  to  go  with  them.  At  any  rate  they  negatived 
that. 

On  the  third  of  August  (3-10)  all  was  at  last  ready. 
They  indited  a  final  letter  to  the  merchants  at  London, 
defended  themselves  as  well  as  they  might  for  not  having 
signed  the  revised  agreement,  and  offered  to  add  to  the 
conditions  signed  at  Leyden  a  clause  continuing  the  joint 
stock  beyond  the  seven  years,  if  "large  profits"  had  not 
then  been  made.  As  Bradford  notes  in  the  margin  of  his 
History,  it  was  well  for  them  that  the  offer  was  not  ac- 
cepted. The  company  was  then  assembled  and  a  long 
letter  of  counsel,  advice,  and  encouragement,  written  by 
Robinson,  was  read  to  them;  each  individual  was  assigned 


Ways  and  Means  67 

his  place  in  one  of  the  ships;  a  Governor  and  two  or  three 
assistants  were  chosen  for  each  ship,  to  have  authority 
for  the  voyage,  to  distribute  provisions,  and  generally  to 
assist  the  officers  of  the  ship.  On  the  fifth  (August  5- 
15)  they  set  sail,  but  had  not  proceeded  very  far  down 
the  Channel,  when  Reynolds,  the  Captain  of  the  Speed- 
well, complained  that  the  ship  was  leaking.  After  search 
and  discussion,  they  put  in  at  Dartmouth,  where  the 
ship  was  overhauled  from  stem  to  stern  and  the  leak 
mended.  They  again  set  sail  and  were  scarcely  out  of 
sight  of  land  when  again  Reynolds  complained  that  the 
ship  was  leaking  badly.  Putting  back  to  Plymouth, 
finding  no  important  leak,  they  adjudged  the  ship  faulty 
and,  after  some  hesitation,  took  from  her  so  much  of  the 
cargo  and  as  many  of  the  people  as  they  could  crowd  into 
the  Mayflower,  and  sent  her  back  to  London  with  some 
eighteen  or  twenty  whose  courage  had  already  weakened. 
Later  the  truth  came  out.  The  refitting  of  the  Speedwell 
in  Holland  had  been  badly  done:  the  masts  and  sails  were 
too  large  and  overstrained  the  ship;  when  she  was  sold 
afterwards  in  London  and  refitted,  she  proved  perfectly 
seaworthy.  The  Pilgrims  later  believed  that  the  Captain 
and  sailors  of  the  Speedwell  regretted  their  agreement  to 
remain  a  year  in  the  colony  and  crowded  the  ship  with 
sail  so  that  she  might  leak  and  be  sent  back.  Certainly 
no  one  fact  contributed  so  much  as  this  to  the  difficulties 
of  the  colony  in  its  first  year.  The  successful  execution  of 
the  original  plans  became  now  problematical  in  the 
extreme.  On  Wednesday,  September  6-16,  they  finally 
left  Plymouth  and  saw  the  coast  of  England  sink  out  of 
sight,  for  the  last  time  for  most  of  them. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  VOYAGE 

There  sailed  from  Plymouth  on  the  Mayflower  that 
sixth  of  September,  1620,  one  hundred  and  two  passen- 
gers whose  identity  has  been  of  greater  interest  to 
posterity  than  that  of  any  other  emigrants  in  history. 
The  elaborate  researches  of  the  last  half  century  have 
established  many  definite  facts  and  a  large  number  of 
highly  probable  conjectures  about  them.  Only  William 
Brewster  and  William  Bradford  can  be  traced  from 
Scrooby  and  Austerfield  in  England  to  Leyden,  and 
thence  to  Plymouth.  Thirty-three  others  of  the  Leyden 
congregation,  including  children,  sailed  on  the  Mayflower, 
the  other  sixty-seven  coming  from  England.  Despite 
the  numerical  preponderance  of  the  newer  element,  it 
was  nevertheless  always  true  that  the  Leyden  contingent 
was  the  backbone  of  the  colony.  Among  them  were 
Brewster,  Bradford,  Carver,  Winslow,  Allerton,  and 
their  families.  Among  those  sailing  from  London  were 
Cushman,  who  returned  with  the  Speedwell;  Standish 
and  his  wife;  Christopher  Martin,  one  of  the  Adven- 
turers, with  his  wife  and  two  servants;  Master  William 
Mullins,  another  of  the  Adventurers,  with  his  wife  and 
two  children,  one  of  whom  was  Priscilla,  and  a  servant; 
Master  Stephen  Hopkins  and  his  wife,  three  children  and 
two  servants;  and  John  Billington,  with  a  wife  and  two 
children.  The  others  were  people  of  less  interest.  Among 
them  were  five  children  "bound"  or  apprenticed,  two  to 
Carver,  two  to  Brewster,  and  one  to  Winslow. 

68 


The  Voyage  69 

It  seems  probable  that  the  Mayflower  passengers  were 
thus  distributed  in  their  English  homes.  From  the 
north  of  England  came  twenty-six;  from  eastern  England 
forty-six;  from  southern  England  twenty-seven;  from 
London  seventeen;  from  central  England  seven;  while 
the  homes  of  fourteen  are  not  yet  ascertainable.1  The 
vast  majority,  seventy-seven,  came  from  four  districts: 
from  Norfolk  thirty- two;  from  Kent  seventeen;  from 
London  seventeen;  and  from  Essex  eleven.  It  is  there- 
fore clear  that  the  majority  of  the  Mayflower  passengers 
not  only  did  not  come  from  Scrooby,  but  did  not  even^ 
come  from  northern  England.  The  adult  males  num- 
bered forty-four,  the  adult  females  nineteen,  the  young 
boys  and  girls  under  age  thirty-nine,  or  about  forty  per 
cent  of  the  whole  number.  There  were  twenty-six  mar- 
ried men  and  eighteen  married  women,  twenty-five 
bachelors  and  one  spinster  servant.  There  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  only  two  of  the  adults  were  over 
fifty  years  old  and  only  nine  over  forty.  The  mortality 
of  the  first  year  fell  heavily  upon  them  and  left  the  colony 
in  the  hands  of  young  men.  Bradford  was  thirty-one, 
Winslow  twenty-five,  Allerton  thirty- two,  Standishv j 
thirty-six,  and  Alden  only  twenty-one.  The  Pilgrim 
Fathers  scarcely  deserved  the  appellation. 

Of  the  ship  on  which  they  sailed  we  know  little,  for 
Bradford  and  Winslow  merely  refer  to  her  as  "the  ship" 
or  "the  larger  ship"  and  do  not  even  give  her  name,  but 
they  do  tell  us  enough  to  infer  much  about  the  general 
type  of  ship  to  which  she  belonged.  She  must  have  been 
about  ninety  feet  long  and  twenty-four  feet  wide,  carry- 

1Dr.  Dexter's  geographical  divisions  are  not  those  commonly 
denoted  in  England  by  the  terms  northern,  southern,  and  the  like. 
Dexter,  England  and  Holland  of  the  Pilgrims,  650. 


70  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

ing  a  crew  of  between  fifteen  and  twenty  men.  Of  her 
three  masts,  the  fore  and  main  masts  were  square  rigged 
without  a  jib,  while  the  mizzen  mast  carried  a  lateen  sail. 
A  high  forecastle  and  a  high  poop  deck  left  the  middle  of 
the  ship  low.  Broad  of  beam,  short  in  the  waist,  low 
between  the  decks  and  in  her  upper  works  none  too  tight, 
she  was  what  was  known  as  a  "wet"  ship,  and,  being  on 
this  voyage  heavily  laden  and  therefore  low  in  the  water, 
shipped  more  seas  than  usual.  At  the  same  time,  so 
far  as  the  Pilgrims  were  concerned,  she  was  a  decidedly 
large,  well  constructed  vessel  entirely  able  to  weather 
the  storms  and  sufficiently  commodious  to  prevent  any 
danger  from  overcrowding.  There  was  undoubtedly  no 
room  to  spare  and  from  a  modern  point  of  view  they 
must  have  been  decidedly  cramped.  They  carried  to  be 
sure  no  young  cattle,  and  the  poultry,  swine,  and  goats, 
which  they  possibly  had,  were  penned  up  forward.  Be- 
tween decks  much  of  the  space  was  occupied  by  a  shallop, 
about  thirty  feet  long  when  put  together,  but  which  they 
were  carrying  in  pieces.  The  passengers  were  distributed 
aft  in  cabins  and  bunks,  not  in  hammocks,  while  the 
crew  lived  forward.  No  furniture  is  known  to  have  been 
brought.  A  whole  fleet  of  ships,  each  several  times 
larger  than  the  Mayflower,  would  have  been  necessary  to 
transport  the  supposedly  genuine  pieces  which  have 
been  claimed  of  Mayflower  origin. 

The  staples  of  food  were  certainly  bacon,  hard  tack, 
salt  beef,  smoked  herring,  cheese,  and  small  beer  or  ale, 
for  the  Pilgrims  were  not  total  abstainers  and  followed 
the  practice,  then  universal  in  Europe,  of  a  moderate  use 
of  liquor.  For  luxuries  they  carried  butter,  vinegar, 
mustard,  and  probably  lemons  and  prunes.  Gin  they 
also  had  and  either  brandy  or  Dutch  schnapps.     The 


The  Voyage  71 

food  was  given  out  each  day  by  the  Governor  and 
assistants  of  the  ship  and  must  have  been  eaten  cold. 
The  only  opportunity  for  cooking  consisted  of  a  frying 
pan  held  over  a  charcoal  fire,  or  a  kettle  suspended  on  an 
iron  tripod  over  a  box  of  sand.  Much  cooking  for  one 
hundred  and  two  passengers  and  a  crew  of  twenty  or 
more  seems  highly  improbable.  There  was  also  little 
opportunity  for  bathing  or  washing  and  when  they 
reached  America  they  must  have  been  in  sore  straits  for 
clean  clothes.  To  cleanliness  however  they  attached 
great  importance  and  no  doubt  achieved  a  greater 
measure  of  it  than  was  common  at  that  time. 

We  know  nothing  about  the  voyage  except  the  little 
Bradford  tells  us,  which  is  enough  to  prove  definitely 
that  comparatively  few  incidents  distinguished  it.  The 
wind  was  fair  for  a  good  many  days  and  they  suffered 
nothing  more  than  seasickness.  In  mid-ocean  they 
encountered  cross  winds  and  storms,  during  one  of  which 
the  main  beam  of  the  ship  sprang  out  of  place  and 
cracked  a  little.  A  consultation  was  promptly  held  as 
to  the  advisability  of  continuing  the  voyage  and  some 
were  in  favor  of  returning  to  England,  but  they  produced 
a  great  iron  jack  from  the  hold,  forced  the  beam  back 
into  place,  and  made  it  fast  with  ropes  and  timber 
braces.  The  officers  and  crew  vouched  for  the  soundness 
of  the  ship  below  the  water  line,  pointed  out  that  the 
voyage  back  to  England  was  as  long  and  perilous  as  the 
continuation  to  America,  and  promised  to  do  what  they 
could  to  make  the  upper  works  a  little  tighter.  They 
stoutly  affirmed  that  there  was  no  real  danger  and  so  the 
outcome  proved.  Although  delayed  by  high  winds  and 
seas,  they  came  without  further  incident  in  sight  of  land 
on  November  9. 


72  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

The  sailors  at  once  identified  the  shore  as  Cape  Cod 
and  all  knew  at  once  that  they  were  considerably  north 
of  the  most  northern  limit  of  their  patent,  and  that  the 
Hudson  River,  which  they  had  originally  in  mind,  lay 
considerably  to  the  south  and  west.  They  promptly 
turned  south  and,  after  some  half  day's  sailing,  found 
themselves  among  the  shoals  and  breakers  of  the  passage 
around  Cape  Cod.  The  Captain  *  extricated  the  ship 
promptly  and  a  consultation  was  held  upon  the  vital 
question  whether  or  not  to  go  forward.  They  decided 
to  return  to  Cape  Cod  and  to  found  their  settlement 
somewhere  on  what  we  now  call  Massachusetts  Bay, 
entirely  conscious  that  they  were  thus  abandoning 
their  patent. 

The  reasons  for  this  momentous  decision  have  excited 
much  curiosity  and  interest  and  have  resulted  in  much 
speculation  and  conjecture,  for  the  Pilgrims  themselves 
tell  us  merely  of  the  season  of  the  year,  the  ship  some- 
what damaged  by  the  voyage,  the  food  running  low, 
and  the  anxiety  of  Captain  and  crew  to  reach  some 
haven  for  the  winter  without  unnecessary  delay.  Be- 
yond the  fact  that  the  mariners  were  insistent  upon  a 
speedy  solution  of  the  problem  of  settlement,  we  get  no 
hint  from  Winslow  or  Bradford  that  any  influence  was 
at  work  other  than  the  minds  of  the  Pilgrims.  Nathaniel 
Morton,  writing  in  1669  presumably  from  oral  tradition 
at  Plymouth,  states  explicitly  that  Dutch  intrigue  was 
responsible  for  this  abandoning  of  the  first  patent,  and 

1 R.  S.  Marsden  in  the  English  Historical  Review,  XIX,  669  ff. 
has  exhaustively  considered  the  question  of  the  identity  of  "Cap- 
tain Jones"  and  successfully  raises  the  presumption  that  he  was 
one  Christopher  Jones,  and  not  Thomas  Jones,  a  notoriously  bad 
character. 


The  Voyage  73 

later  students  have  suggested  a  plot  between  Weston 
and  Gorges  to  "steal"  the  colony  from  the  Virginia 
Company.  Both  of  these  conjectures  are  of  course 
based  upon  the  assumption  that  nothing  but  treachery 
and  terror  could  have  induced  the  Pilgrims  to  land  in 
New  England  without  patent  or  authorization;  both 
entirely  disregard  the  failure  of  Bradford  or  Winslow 
to  express  the  slightest  concern  for  the  change  in  plans. 
Bradford  indeed  explicitly  says  that  the  Compact, 
which  they  presently  signed,  was  as  legal  and  useful  as 
the  patent  itself,  and  that  they  thought  so  at  the  time. 
If  such  was  their  attitude,  certainly  no  treachery  on  the 
part  of  Jones  or  Weston  is  an  essential  premise  of  an 
explanation. 

Is  it  not  more  likely  that  the  patent  was  intended  to 
legalize  their  departure  from  England,  to  secure  the 
acquiescence  of  the  authorities  in  their  emigration? 
Must  we  not  also  remember  that  the  patent  gave  them 
individually  no  rights  in  America  whatever,  but  con- 
ferred all  the  privileges  upon  the  merchants,  with  whom 
they  had  so  decidedly  quarreled  at  Southampton?  If 
it  was  true  that  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Plymouth  with- 
out legal  authority,  they  would  have  been  equally  de- 
void of  legal  authority  in  their  own  persons  within  the 
territory  of  the  Virginia  Company.  It  would  have 
been  possible  for  the  merchants  at  any  time  to  decline 
to  recognize  them  longer  as  associates,  to  claim  that 
they  never  had  been  their  associates.  What  the  Pil- 
grims wished  was  a  grant  of  land  in  their  own  persons  * 
and  they  did  not  rest  until  they  secured  it.  Moreover, 
the  Virginia  Company  was  either  Episcopalian  or  un- 
separated  and  the  Pilgrims  could  scarcely  have  regretted 
escaping  its  jurisdiction.    Possibly,  too,  they  knew  that 


74  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

the  Council  of  New  England  was  about  to  be  created, 
that  the  new  company  would  be  anxious  for  colonists, 
that  Weston  did  know  the  grantees,  and  that  a  new 
charter  on  far  better  terms  might  be  secured  for  a  colony 
already  planted  in  the  New  World.  These  are  conjec- 
tures and  for  them  there  is  nothing  better  than  inherent 
probability.  But  are  they  not  at  least  as  probable  as 
^the  elaborate  structures  of  plots  and  treason  hitherto 
suggested  as  explanations  for  this  important  step? 

As  the  Mayflower  returned  along  Cape  Cod  a  number 
of  the  company,  who  had  come  on  board  at  London, 
informed  the  leaders  with  no  mincing  of  words,  that  the 
abandoning  of  the  original  patent  left  the  leaders  with- 
out authority  over  them,  and  that  they  should  take  the 
first  opportunity  to  secure  their  freedom.  To  put  an 
end  to  such  murmurings — for  the  leaders  did  not  for  a 
moment  suppose  that  they  were  providing  themselves 
with  legal  authorization — a  solemn  Compact  was  drawn 
up  and  signed  by  forty-one  adult  males  of  the  Company. 

In  ye  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose  names  are  under- 
write^ the  loyall  subjects  of  our  dread  soveraigne  Lord, 
King  James,  by  ye  grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britaine,  Franc, 
&  Ireland  king,  defender  of  ye  faith,  &c.  Haveing  under- 
taken, for  ye  glorie  of  God,  and  advancemente  of  ye  Christian 
faith,  and  honour  of  our  king  &  countrie,  a  voyage  to  plant 
ye  first  colonie  in  ye  Northerne  parts  of  Virginia,  doe  by 
these  presents  solemnly  and  mutualy  in  ye  presence  of 
God,  and  one  of  another,  covenant  &  combine  ourselves  to- 
geather  into  a  civill  body  politick,  for  our  better  ordering 
&  preservation  &  furtherance  of  ye  ends  aforesaid;  and  by 
vertue  hearof  to  enacte,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  & 
equall  lawes,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  &  offices,  from 
time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meete  &  convenient 


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The  Voyage  75 

for  ye  generall  good  of  ye  Colonie,  unto  which  we  promise  all 
due  submission  and  obedience.  In  witnes  wherof  we  have 
hereunder  subscribed  our  names  at  Cap-Codd  ye  n.  of 
November,  in  ye  year  of  ye  raigne  of  our  soveraigne  lord, 
King  James,  of  England,  France,  &  Ireland  ye  eighteenth, 
and  of  Scotland  ye  fiftie  fourth.    Anp:  Dom.  1620. 

On  November  11-21,  the  Mayflower  anchored  safely 
in  Provincetown  Harbor  and  the  leaders  began  definite 
consideration  of  the  sort  of  location  required  for  the 
future  colony.  They  were  to  establish  a  permanent 
trading  post,  which  should  maintain  itself  by  fishing 
and  bartering  beads,  toys,  and  cloth  with  the  Indians 
of  the  district.  Astonishing  to  relate,  not  one  of  the 
passengers  had  ever  fished  nor,  so  far  as  we  know,  with 
the  exception  of  Standish,  had  any  of  them  fired  a  gun 
by  anything  better  than  accident.  All  had  been  farmers 
in  England,  accustomed  to  the  open  fields  and  broad- 
cast sowing,  and  in  Holland  all  had  followed  some  trade 
or  other.  They  were  indeed  so  ignorant  that  they  dis- 
covered spices  in  the  thickets  of  Cape  Cod  and  in  the 
first  few  weeks  shot  a  bird  which  they  took  to  be  an 
" eagle"  and  were  frightened  by  "lions."  They  were 
absolutely  unprepared  for  the  conditions  they  actually 
found  and  brought  really  nothing  except  good  constitu- 
tions, loyalty  to  each  other,  good  sense,  patience,  for- 
bearance, and  devotion  to  a  high  religious  ideal.  They 
lacked  everything  but  virtue. 

Nor  had  they  brought  with  them  the  most  necessary 
supplies.  Food  they  could  not  bring  in  large  quantities 
and  they  expected  to  depend  upon  the  Indian  corn  or 
maize,  and  were  aware  that  they  must  obtain  a  supply 
for  planting  from  the  Indians.  They  brought,  however, 
peas,  beans,  and  seed  for  growing  onions,  turnips,  pars- 


76  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

nips,  and  cabbages.  There  was  also  a  large  stock  of 
salt,  some  clothing,  some  trinkets,  and  presents  for  the 
Indians,  and  a  few  boots  and  shoes,  brought  by  Mullins, 
the  father  of  Priscilla.  Simple  culinary  utensils  of  pewter 
or  woodenware  they  brought  with  them,  andirons, 
candle  molds,  and  the  like.  For  wood  cutting,  cooper- 
ing, and  carpentry  they  brought  an  elaborate  set  of 
tools,  as  well  as  equipment  for  a  blacksmith's  shop,  and 
an  anvil.  Guns,  swords,  and  powder,  with  some  side- 
armor,  breastplates,  and  cannon  they  also  brought. 
Everything  considered,  a  remarkably  adequate  supply. 
For  agriculture  they  possessed  only  a  few  hand  tools. 
They  brought  no  beast  of  burden,  no  plows,  carts,  or 
harness  of  any  description.  For  fishing  they  were  pro- 
vided only  with  nets  and  hooks  so  large  that  they  could 
not  catch  cod  with  them.  Indubitably  they  were  not 
adequately  equipped  to  found  a  colony,  which  would 
depend  entirely  for  subsistence  upon  what  it  might  raise 
in  the  New  World.  They  were  equipped  to  build  houses, 
cultivate  gardens,  catch  fish  in  nets,  and  trade  with  the 
Indians  for  furs.  To  find  a  location  for  such  a  colony 
was  now  their  task.  This  can  not  be  too  carefully  borne 
in  mind.  Had  they  been  looking  for  a  site  for  a  settle- 
ment colony,  which  should  depend  primarily  upon  its 
own  labor  in  America  for  subsistence,  they  would  prob- 
ably not  have  pitched  upon  Plymouth. 

They  went  ashore  at  once,  and,  wading  and  splashing 
through  the  shallow  water,  first  set  foot  on  the  soil  of 
the  New   World.1    Fifteen  or  sixteen  of  the  adult  men, 

1  In  the  eighties  appeared  in  London  an  historical  work  by  the 
author  of  Jzdamerk,  a  Mrs.  J.  B.  Webb-Peploe,  en  tided,  the 
Pilgrims  of  New  England.  Some  notion  of  the  possibilities  of 
historical  ignorance  can  be  had  from  it.    They  land  upon  a  pre- 


The  Voyage  77 

well-armed,  wandered  about  the  shores  of  Provincetown 
Harbor  for  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  we  may  well 
imagine  with  what  mingled  curiosity,  elation,  expect- 
ancy, and  alarm  these  agricultural  laborers  and  artisans 
from  the  domestic  industry  of  Holland  went  out  in  the 
guise  of  explorers,  adventurers,  and  soldiers.  The  loca- 
tion, however,  was  neither  romantic  nor  adventurous. 
They  soon  saw  that  the  land  was  a  narrow  neck  of  sand, 
interspersed  with  marshes  and  large  ponds,  certainly 
not  the  place  for  their  settlement.  On  the  thirteenth, 
they  brought  out  the  shallop  and  found  many  days' 
labor  required  before  it  could  be  seaworthy.  Meanwhile 
the  women  washed  clothes  in  the  ponds,  the  men  and 
children  took  exercise  on  shore,  and  several  expeditions 
were  made  in  the  neighborhood.1  The  first,  on  No- 
vember 15,  led  by  Standish,  Bradford,  and  Hopkins 
saw  traces  of  game,  of  Indians,  of  previous  Europeans, 
and  marched  up  hill  and  down  dale  with  great  toil  and 
fatigue.  The  unaccustomed  armor  chafed  them,  the 
weight  of  the  guns  tired  them,  and  breaking  through 
the  heavy  underbrush  "tore  our  very  armor  to  pieces." 
Some  Indian  fields,  an  Indian  grave,  the  planks  of  a 
wrecked  ship  made  into  a  rude  house,  an  iron  ship 

cipitous  granite  strewn  shore  amid  dashing  surf,  mountains  high, 
in  which  the  authoress  instinctively  bathes  deep;  they  hunt  wild 
horses  (of  which  there  were  none,  wild  or  tame  in  English  America 
before  1624),  and  elect  Carver  President.  The  hero  is  an  English- 
man with  sons  named  Heinrich  and  Ludovico! 

JThe  winters  of  1620-1622  were  exceptionally  mild;  so  were 
those  of  1630-163 1,  while  in  1645-1646  plowing  was  going  on 
in  February.  The  winters  of  1637-38  and  of  1641-42  were 
the  coldest  in  forty  years.  Plymouth  harbor  was  frozen  solid 
and  was  crossed  by  oxen  and  carts  for  five  weeks.  It  is  fortunate 
they  did  not  meet  this  sort  of  weather  that  first  year. 


78  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

kettle,  such  were  the  specific  evidences  of  human  habita- 
tion. Several  caches  of  corn  which  they  found,  they 
took,  for  which  they  afterwards  scrupulously  paid. 

Finally  the  shallop  was  ready  and  on  November  27 
the  first  trip  was  made  under  the  leadership  of  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Mayflower,  Weather  conditions  were  highly 
unfavorable;  snow  fell,  a  cold  wind  chilled  their  bones, 
and  the  rowers  in  the  boat  were  soon  covered  with  ice 
from  the  driving  spray  and  sleet.  They  coasted  along 
to  the  Pamet  River,  which  they  at  first  thought  a  good 
site,  found  more  caches  of  corn,  more  woods,  sand  bars, 
and  ponds,  and  returned  impressed  more  than  ever 
with  the  unsuitability  of  the  neighborhood  and  with 
the  necessity  of  finding  at  once  a  permanent  site.  On 
December  6-16,  the  second  expedition  departed,  in 
weather  so  cold  that  the  spray  from  the  oars  froze  on 
their  clothes  and  one  of  their  number  nearly  died  of 
exposure.  Far  down  Cape  Cod  they  sailed  and,  after 
seeing  more  Indians  in  the  distance,  investigating  empty 
wigwams,  graves,  and  further  caches  of  corn,  they 
landed  for  the  night  and  barricaded  themselves,  a  little 
company  of  eighteen  men,  six  of  whom  were  from  the 
crew  of  the  Mayflower.  At  midnight  they  were  dis- 
turbed by  dreadful  noises  which  they  took  to  be  those 
of  wolves,  but  at  daybreak  further  outcries  aroused  them 
and  soon  Indians  were  upon  them.  They  were  unpre- 
pared. Most  of  them  had  carried  their  armor  and  guns 
down  to  the  water's  edge  in  preparation  for  sailing  and 
only  Standish,  Bradford,  and  a  couple  more  had  re- 
tained their  fire  arms.  Two  of  them  fired,  checking  the 
Indians  for  a  moment,  the  other  two  holding  themselves 
in  readiness.  The  rest  in  considerable  disorder  and  fear 
hurried  for  their  own  weapons,  which  they  recovered 


The  Voyage  79 

without  real  difficulty,  the  Indians  manifesting  no  real 
desire  to  meet  the  White  Man  in  the  open.  From  the 
trees  the  Indians  continued  to  shoot  arrows.  From  their 
own  cover  the  Pilgrims  returned  musket  fire.  The  chief 
of  the  Indians  stood  well  forward  under  a  tree  and  de- 
liberately shot  at  the  leaders  with  his  arrows.  They 
took  equally  deliberate  aim  at  him,  and  after  three 
misses,  finally  hit  the  tree  above  his  head,  whereupon 
he  gave  a  great  "shrike"  and  took  to  his  heels.  This 
ended  the  first  encounter,  as  they  called  it,  a  fact  which 
thrilled  these  simple  countrymen  inexpressibly. 

December  8-18  was  a  hard  day.  They  stood  along  the 
coast,  steered  toward  the  mountain  of  Manomet,  which 
the  sailors  had  pointed  out  from  the  ship  at  Provincetown 
as  the  landmark  of  the  good  harbor  indicated  on  Smith's 
map.  After  some  two  hours'  snowfall,  the  sea  grew  rough 
and  the  waves  sufficiently  violent  by  the  middle  of  the 
afternoon  to  break  the  hinges  of  the  rudder,  so  that  two 
men  with  oars  steered  the  shallop.  At  length,  the  look- 
out cried  that  he  saw  the  harbor,  and,  crowding  on  more 
sail  in  an  attempt  to  make  the  harbor  before  dark,  they 
overtaxed  the  rigging;  the  mast  split  in  three  pieces,  the 
sail  dragged  overboard,  and  they  barely  escaped  cap- 
sizing. They  were  however  near  the  entrance  of  Plym- 
outh harbor  and  their  diligence  at  the  oars  and  the 
flood  tide  carried  them  through  the  harbor's  entrance. 
Again  they  found  themselves  imperilled  by  the  breakers, 
but  the  presence  of  mind  of  one  of  the  sailors,  who  told 
them  to  pull  sharply,  the  promptness  of  their  own  action, 
once  more  saved  the  little  craft,  and  they  soon  ran  into 
calm  water  under  the  lee  of  Clark's  Island.  After  some 
hesitation,  a  few  of  the  bolder  spirits  ventured  ashore 
and,  despite  the  sleet  and  wind,  kindled  a  fire,  of  which 


80  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

they  were  presently  extremely  glad,  for  the  wind  shifted 
about  midnight,  the  temperature  fell  sharply,  and  they 
had  all  been  wet  to  the  skin  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
day.    This  was  Friday,  December  8-18. 

All  night  it  rained.  In  the  morning  the  rain  con- 
tinuing, apparently  they  marched  around  Clark's  Island 
and  there  stayed  all  day.  On  Sunday,  December  10-20, 
they  rested.  It  was  not  until  Monday  December  11,  Old 
Style,  December  21,  New  Style,  that  they  landed  from 
the  shallop  somewhere  on  Plymouth  harbor.  Astronom- 
ical calculation  shows  that  the  tide  was  flood  and  that 
they  could,  despite  the  flats,  have  landed  anywhere  along 
the  sandy  shore.  This  date  has  been  accepted  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  as  the  technical 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims.1  The  weather  was  mild  and 
sunny,  there  was  no  snow,  and  the  ground  was  not  even 
frozen.  All  the  women  and  children  and  the  great  bulk 
of  the  men  being  still  at  Provincetown  on  the  Mayflower, 
only  eighteen  men  went  ashore  from  the  shallop  on  this 
day,  of  whom  ten  were  Pilgrims:  Standish,  Bradford, 
Carver,  Winslow,  John  and  Edward  Tilley,  Howland, 
Warren,  Steven  Hopkins,  and  Edward  Dotte.  There 
were  with  them  also  two  hired  seamen  not  of  the  May- 
flower crew,  two  of  the  mates  of  the  ship,  the  master 
gunner,  and  three  sailors.  After  sounding  the  harbor 
and  exploring  the  shore  at  some  length,  they  concluded 
that  they  had  found  a  satisfactory  location  and  returned 
to  Provincetown,  arriving  December  13-23.    Two  days 

1  The  anniversary  speeches  delivered  at  various  dates  are  by 
no  means  devoid  of  interest  and  value  and  many  will  well  repay  a 
reading.  A  very  nearly  complete  list  has  been  compiled  by  Albert 
Matthews,  and  was  printed  in  the  Publications  of  the  Colonial 
Society  of  Massachusetts,  XVII,  387-392. 


The  Voyage  81 

later  the  Mayflower  sailed  for  Plymouth,  but,  because  of 
the  contrary  wind,  was  unable  to  make  harbor  until 
December  16-26.  The  next  day  was  Sunday,  the  first 
day  of  worship  at  Plymouth,  conducted  certainly  on 
shipboard  by  Elder  Brewster,  and  consisted  no  doubt  of 
the  singing  of  psalms,  of  heartfelt  prayers,  of  the  reading 
of  the  Scriptures  and  the  expository  work  which  was  all 
that  Brewster  attempted.  Thus  ended  the  long  pil- 
grimage from  the  Old  World  to  the  New.  "  May  not  and 
ought  not  the  children  of  these  fathers  rightly  say"  wrote 
Bradford,  "our  faithers  were  Englishmen  which  came 
over  this  great  ocean  and  were  ready  to  perish  in  this 
willdernes  but  they  cried  unto  the  Lord  and  he  heard 
their  voyce  and  looked  on  their  adversitie." 

Bibliographical  Notes 

Appearance  of  the  Pilgrims.  There  is  nothing  which  the 
student  so  much  regrets  as  the  entire  absence  of  information 
as  to  the  personal  appearance  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  is  not 
merely  true  that  we  have  no  accurate  or  extensive  informa- 
tion, we  have  literally  not  a  suggestion  as  to  whether  Brad- 
ford was  tall  or  short,  thin  or  stout,  black  haired  or  light 
complexioned.  Nor  do  we  know  what  clothes  they  wore 
when  they  landed.  Certainly  not  the  hats,  cloaks,  and  shoes 
characteristic  of  England  half  a  century  later.  The  numerous 
pictures  can  not  longer  be  considered  correct  in  detail  and 
some  of  them  represent  scenes  which  can  not  now  be  shown  to 
have  taken  place  at  all.  One  authentic  portrait  only  exists, — 
of  Edward  Winslow,  painted  in  London  in  1651,  five  years 
after  leaving  Plymouth.  The  women,  of  whom  so  much  has 
been  written  and  imagined,  appear  in  the  contemporary  ac- 
counts of  Bradford  and  Winslow  as  mere  names.  From  their 
own  contemporaries  we  have  not  the  slightest  hint  as  to 
their  character,  influence,  intelligence,  or  appearance.    The 


82  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

critical  scholar  must  confess  this  entire  absence  of  material 
for  the  little  details  so  much  desired  by  posterity.  Yet, 
after  all,  remarkable  characters  for  sanity,  intelligence,  high 
devotion  to  Christian  ideals  are  limned  for  us  by  the  authentic 
narrative.  The  knowledge  of  their  stature,  weight,  costume, 
and  the  color  of  their  hair  could  add  nothing  to  our  estimate 
of  their  true  worth. 

Genealogical  Bibliography. — Those  who  are  anxious  posi- 
tively to  establish  their  descent  from  the  Pilgrims  will  do  well 
to  attempt  no  researches  themselves,  unless  already  skilled 
at  such  work,  but  to  communicate  with  G.  E.  Bowman,  53 
Mt.  Vernon  St.,  Boston,  who  has  made  the  study  of  Pilgrim 
families  and  genealogy  his  life  work.  For  those,  however, 
willing  to  be  content  with  something  less  than  certainty,  the 
Mayflower  Descendant,  a  quarterly  journal;  Pilgrim  Notes  and 
Queries,  eight  monthly  issues  a  year,  both  edited  by  Mr.  Bow- 
man, will  usually  give  some  clue  to  family  relationships. 
Goodwin's  Pilgrim  Republic  gives  commonly  full  data  cover- 
ing the  immediate  descendants  of  known  Pilgrims.  The  New 
England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  Peirce's  Colonial 
Lists,  Boston,  1881,  the  (English)  Congregational  Historical 
Society's  Transactions,  London,  1901,  the  various  publica- 
tions of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  of  the  Amer- 
ican Antiquarian  Society,  of  the  Colonial  Society  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, of  the  Old  Colony  Historical  Society,  are  all 
valuable.  There  are  also  the  Pilgrim  Newsletter,  Providence, 
R.  I.,  published  since  1909;  and  the  Society  of  Mayflower 
Descendants  of  Illinois,  which  has  published  material  since 
1900.  Much  use  must  be  made  of  the  histories  of  great  Eng- 
lish and  American  families,  of  state,  town,  and  county  records, 
all  too  numerous  to  be  mentioned  here,  as  well  as  of  all  the 
Pilgrim  sources  which  have  been  and  will  be  referred  to  in 
this  volume.  Such  researches  commonly  lead  the  student  far 
afield  into  unexpected  places,  which  is  their  chief  charm  for 
most  genealogists. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   FIRST  YEAR 

The  first  stage  of  the  great  enterprise  thus  successfully 
accomplished,  the  difficulties  in  their  path  one  after 
another  surmounted,  a  greater  problem  now  loomed 
before  them — how  could  the  transition  from  ship  to 
shore  be  safely  made  and  the  colony  established  on  the 
soil  of  the  New  World.1  Monday,  December  18,  found 
the  Pilgrims  early  ashore.  That  day  and  the  two  suc- 
ceeding were  consumed  in  eager  and  thorough  explora- 
tions of  the  harbor,  the  rivers,  the  forests,  and  the  soil. 
On  the  twentieth  a  vote  was  taken  and  the  majority 
elected  to  build  the  new  settlement  on  what  Bradford 
called  the  "first  site,"  evidently  that  selected  by  the 
leaders  who  came  in  the  shallop  a  week  or  more  previous. 
The  name,  Plymouth,  they  found  on  Smith's  map  of  New 
England  and  retained  it. 

The  site  was  well  adapted  for  a  permanent  fishing  and 
trading  factory.  Though  the  Mayflower  was  compelled 
to  lie  in  the  outer  harbor  on  account  of  the  shallow  water 
at  low  tide,  the  harbor  was  deep  enough  for  a  ship  of  no 

1  Our  information  for  this  section  of  the  narrative  is  singularly 
full  and  reliable.  They  sent  back  to  England  in  the  Fortune  a 
detailed  Relation  of  all  that  had  happened  since  landing.  It  was 
printed  in  1622  and  was  almost  certainly  written  by  Winslow  and 
Bradford.  It  is  conveniently  reprinted  in  Arber's  Story  of  the 
Pilgrims,  together  with  Winslow's  Good  News  from  New  England. 
Bradford's  History  adds  important  information  on  points  not 
covered  by  these  narratives,  and  on  others,  like  the  "general  sick- 
ness," which  they  deemed  it  better  to  omit  in  162 1. 

83 


84  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

more  than  eighty  tons  to  anchor  near  the  shore.  The 
second  fact  which  impressed  them  was  the  number  of 
fish  they  saw  and  the  larger  amount  they  conjectured 
would  be  present  in  the  proper  season.  Whales  they  had 
seen  off  Provincetown;  they  had  been  told  by  the  crew 
of  the  vast  profit  from  the  sale  of  the  oil,  and  they  judged 
in  the  sublimity  of  their  ignorance  that  it  would  be  easy 
to  kill  one.  Seals  also  they  saw  and  deemed  valuable. 
Thus  two  prime  requisites  were  answered.  The  amount 
of  cleared  land,  on  either  side  of  what  came  to  be  called 
the  Town  Brook,  also  attracted  them  to  the  site.  A  good 
many  acres  of  corn  fields  of  the  Patuxets,  dead  from  the 
plague  of  three  years  before,  were  unused,  and,  after 
testing  the  soil,  they  concluded  it  to  be  rich  and  suffi- 
ciently deep.  The  small  rivers  and  brooks  emptying  into 
the  harbor  provided  an  abundance  of  water,  while  at  a 
distance  of  one-eighth  of  a  mile  stood  abundant  timber 
for  their  houses  and  for  the  cut  lumber,  which  they  ex- 
pected to  export  to  England,  where  wood  was  scarce  and 
expensive.  Furthermore,  the  site  was  protected  by 
Nature,  for  on  the  east  the  harbor,  and  on  the  south  the 
town  brook  in  a  little  ravine  prevented  attack  by  the 
Indians.  On  the  west  an  abrupt  hill,  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  feet  high,  gave  them  a  location  for  their  cannon 
commanding  the  only  easy  approaches  to  the  new  town 
from  the  open  fields  to  the  north. 

After  two  days  of  storm  and  rain  they  set  to  work,  on 
December  23,  and  for  three  days  cut  timber  with  great 
diligence.  The  difficulties  of  their  task  were  considerable, 
for  their  headquarters,  the  Mayflower,  was  one  and  one- 
half  miles  from  shore,  and  they  must  row  back  and  forth 
constantly.  They  were  compelled  to  carry  the  timber 
itself  an  eighth  of  a  mile  from  the  woods  without  draught 


The  First  Year  85 

animals  to  assist.  There  were  in  all  only  forty-four  adult 
men,  many  of  whom  were  by  this  time  ill.  The  first 
Christmas  therefore  was  spent  in  hard  work,  for,  like 
most  Protestant  bodies  of  the  time,  the  Pilgrims  declined 
to  celebrate  the  day  because  they  could  find  no  warrant 
for  it  in  the  Scriptures.  Two  more  days  of  rain  interfered 
with  the  work,  but  on  the  twenty-eighth  they  laid  out  the 
town  along  the  brook,  and  assigned  locations  for  a 
"common  house,"  to  be  used  as  an  assembly  hall,  and 
for  several  dwelling  houses.  After  more  rain  and  cold 
during  the  first  week  in  January,  the  work  went  on  at  a 
more  rapid  rate  and  without  intermission.  Jones  and 
his  men  went  out  in  the  shallop  and  after  some  ado 
caught  three  seals  and  one  codfish.  Apparently  an 
expedition,  whose  prime  object  was  the  catching  of  fish, 
had  arrived  with  no  practical  knowledge  of  the  sort  of 
fishing  which  New  England  afforded.  On  January  7,  to 
facilitate  the  work,  the  company  was  divided  into  nine- 
teen "families,"  thus  putting  the  boys  and  servants 
under  the  supervision  of  the  older  married  men. 

So  rapidly  had  they  worked  that  by  January  9,  the 
frame  of  a  "common  house,"  twenty  feet  square,  had 
been  built  of  rough  logs  and  the  cracks  filled  in  with 
mud.  The  roof  they  built  in  the  succeeding  days  of 
thatch,  after  a  fashion  still  common  at  Scrooby  and 
Austerfield.  On  the  fourteenth  at  about  six  in  the  morn- 
ing, the  lookouts  on  the  Mayflower  saw  the  new  house  on 
shore  afire,  but,  the  tide  being  out,  the  shallows  and  the 
high  wind  prevented  their  sending  aid  for  some  little 
time.  A  spark  from  a  match  in  the  house  had  set  fire  to 
the  thatch,  the  high  wind  produced  a  quick  blaze,  which 
soon  burned  itself  out  without  damage  to  the  roof  tim- 
bers or  the  frame.   The  house  was  packed  with  the  beds  of 


86  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

the  majority  of  adult  men,  including  several,  like  Carver 
and  Bradford,  who  were  very  sick.  All  escaped  from 
the  burning  building  and  regarded  it  as  a  special  act  of 
Providence,  that  the  loaded  muskets  beside  most  of  the 
men  had  not  been  discharged  by  the  fire.  The  day  being 
Sunday,  no  work  could  be  done  to  repair  the  roof,  and 
the  rain  poured  dismally  from  a  cheerless  sky  upon  them, 
shivering  in  their  roofless  house  throughout  that  long 
Sabbath.  A  week  later  the  roof  had  been  replaced  and 
service  was  held  on  land  by  Elder  Brewster  for  the  first 
time.  Gradually  now  as  the  weather  permitted,  and  as 
the  sheds  and  log  cabins  on  shore  were  finished  and 
thatched,  the  stores  were  moved  from  the  ship  to  the 
shore,  carried  up  the  steep  bank,  and  placed  as  they 
believed  in  safety.  On  the  twenty-first  of  February,  two 
cannon  were  gotten  ashore  by  the  help  of  the  crew  and 
located  on  the  hill.  Traces  of  Indians  had  been  seen  and 
the  colony  was  alarmed. 

Meanwhile, — indeed  ever  since  the  landing  at  Prov- 
incetown — a  considerable  number  had  been  ill,  and  by 
February  what  Bradford  calls  the  "general  sickness " 
had  stricken  practically  all  the  members.  As  their 
surprisingly  good  health  on  the  voyage  had  been  the 
result  of  the  extremely  careful  arrangements,  so  now  the 
cause  of  the  "general  sickness"  seems  to  have  been 
careless  exposure,  though  not  to  the  severity  of  New 
England  weather,  for  the  winter  of  1620-162 1  and  the 
two  succeeding  winters  were  singularly  open  and  mild. 
Both  Provincetown  and  Plymouth  harbors  were  so 
shallow  that  the  Mayflower  was  anchored  a  long  distance 
.from  shore,  and  a  considerable  number  of  Pilgrims  waded 
back  and  forth,  to  the  small  boats  every  day,  became 
thoroughly  wet  in  the  process,  and  had  no  satisfactory 


The  First  Year  87 

method  of  drying  their  clothes.  The  women,  again, 
misled  by  the  mild  weather,  washed  clothes  several  days 
in  the  ponds  at  Provincetown  and  caught  severe  colds. 
The  explorations  in  the  open  boat,  the  expeditions  on  the 
wet  shore,  resulted  in  further  exposure.  The  result  seems 
to  have  been  tuberculosis  of  a  surprisingly  contagious  and 
rapid  type,  called  sometimes  galloping  consumption.1 
Whatever  it  was,  the  Pilgrims  certainly  caught  it  from 
one  another  and  in  December,  six  died,  in  January,  eight 
more,  in  February,  seventeen,  and  in  March,  thirteen. 
So  dire  was  their  distress  that,  during  these  months,  no 
more  than  six  or  seven  were  well  at  a  time,  and  only 
Brewster  and  Standish  entirely  escaped  illness.  On 
some  days  two  or  three  died,  and  tradition  has  it  that  the 
graves  accumulated  so  fast,  that  the  Pilgrims  leveled 
them  with  care,  lest  the  Indians  should  be  able  to  count 
and  discover  how  greatly  the  little  colony  was  weakened. 
Their  devotion  to  each  other  during  these  exceedingly 
trying  months  is  beyond  all  praise.  Those  who  were  able 
labored  unsparingly  night  and  day,  carrying  wood, 
making  fires,  preparing  food,  making  beds,  washing 
clothes,  performing,  as  Bradford  says,  "willingly  and 
cheerfully  services  which  dainty  stomachs  could  hardly 
endure  to  hear  named." 

The  crew  of  the  ship  showed  little  sympathy  for  the 
Pilgrims  in  their  extremity  and  even  denied  them  a  share 
of  the  few  comforts  they  themselves  possessed.  Bradford 
therefore  notes  with  considerable  satisfaction  the  godless 
conduct  of  the  crew  when  the  disease  fell  upon  them.  The 
Pilgrims  now  ministered  to  their  needs  as  best  they 

1  Edward  E.  Cornwall,  M.  D.,  in  New  England  Magazine,  New 
Series,  XV,  662-667.  They  were  also  much  troubled  by  sciatica, 
rheumatism,  and  inflammatory  rheumatism. 


88  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

could,  and  so  affected  the  boatswain,  who,  as  Bradford 
notes,  had  often  "cursed  and  scoffed  at  the  passengers," 
that  he  cried  out  to  them,  "O,  saith  he,  you  I  now  see 
show  your  love  as  Christians  unto  one  another,  but  we 
let  one  another  lie  and  die  like  dogs."  In  all,  forty-six 
died  and  only  fifty-six  were  left  alive  of  the  original 
company.  At  the  end  of  the  first  year,  the  number  of 
survivors  was  fifty-one,  twenty-three  adults: — Bradford, 
Edward  and  Gilbert  Winslow,  Brewster  and  his  wife, 
Allerton,  Standish,  Hopkins  and  his  wife,  Fuller,  the 
surgeon,  John  Alden,  and  twelve  others.  Only  one  of  the 
nine  servants  survived;  only  four  out  of  fourteen  wives; 
but  ten  out  of  eleven  girls  and  fifteen  out  of  twenty-one 
boys. 

About  the  middle  of  March,  when  many  had  barely 
recovered  from  the  worst  ravages  of  disease,  the  men  met 
at  the  common  house  to  decide  what  action,  if  any, 
should  be  taken  in  regard  to  the  Indians.  Suddenly  they 
saw  walking  down  their  little  street,  a  solitary  Indian, 
who  advanced  boldly  and  called  out  to  them  in  English, 
welcome.  He  was  entirely  naked  except  for  a  leathern 
girdle  and  carried  only  a  bow  and  two  arrows.  They 
stopped  him  as  he  was  about  to  enter  the  common  house, 
but  he  explained  in  broken  English  that  he  was  a  chief 
of  Monhegan  in  Maine,  where  he  had  learned  English 
from  the  crews  of  the  fishing  vessels.  His  name  was,  he 
said,  Samoset.  He  talked  with  them  pleasantly  and  at 
great  length,  and  as  the  wind  began  to  be  sharp,  they  put 
a  cloak  about  him.  Presently  he  asked  for  beer.  They 
took  him  to  dinner  and  gave  him  some  "strong  water," 
with  biscuit,  butter,  cheese,  something  they  called 
pudding,  and  some  duck,  all  of  which  surprised  him  not 
at  all.     He  proceeded  to  tell  them  after  dinner  a  great 


The  First  Year  89 

deal  about  the  Indians  of  the  district.  In  particular  that 
the  Indian  name  of  Plymouth  was  Patuxet,  that  the 
whole  tribe  had  died  in  a  plague  four  years  before,  and 
that  their  nearest  neighbors  were  a  tribe  of  about  sixty 
warriors.  At  night  they  would  gladly  have  gotten  rid  of 
him,  but,  as  he  showed  no  inclination  to  leave,  they 
determined  to  send  him  aboard  the  Mayflower.  They 
were  unable  to  get  the  shallop  across  the  flats,  and  so 
lodged  him  with  Steven  Hopkins  and  watched  him  with 
care.  In  the  morning  he  departed  with  many  friendly  ex- 
pressions. 

Two  weeks  later  he  returned  with  five  tall  savages, 
whom  the  Pilgrims  entertained  as  best  they  could,  much 
embarrassed  because  the  day  was  Sunday  and  the  Indians 
insisted  upon  dancing  and  singing.  After  a  short  but  very 
friendly  visit,  they  departed,  Samoset  remaining  again 
overnight.  On  March  twenty-second,  a  fine  spring  day, 
he  came  back  once  more,  bringing  with  him  the  sole 
survivor  of  the  Indian  tribe  which  had  formerly  lived  at 
Plymouth,  a  man  called  Squanto  by  Bradford,  and 
Tisquantum  by  Winslow.1  He  had  been  captured  some 
years  before  by  an  English  captain,  carried  to  London, 
brought  back  by  the  English  to  Newfoundland,  whence 
Captain  Dermer  in  a  voyage  the  year  before  the  Pilgrims 
landed  had  brought  him  back  to  Cape  Cod.  The  two 
Indians  brought  news  that  Massasoit,  the  sachem  of  the 
tribes  of  Pokanoket,  was  on  his  way  with  his  warriors  to 
pay  a  ceremonial  visit. 

After  about  an  hour  of  great  excitement,  some  sixty 

1  Goodwin,  Arber,  and  others  have  chosen  to  follow  Winslow 
instead  of  employing  the  more  familiar  Squanto.  I  see  no  valid 
reason  for  supposing  Winslow  more  accurate  than  Bradford  in 
transliterating  the  Indian's  name  or  in  representing  Pilgrim  practice. 


9<d  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Indians  appeared  on  the  hill  beyond  the  town  brook,  and, 
after  some  preliminary  negotiations  by  Squanto,  Edward 
Winslow,  wearing  armor  and  side-arms,  clambered  down 
the  ravine  to  the  ford  of  the  brook,  marched  up  the  hill, 
and  stayed  several  hours  alone  with  the  Indians.  He 
presented  Massasoit  with  two  knives  and  a  copper  chain, 
with  some  sort  of  jewel  attached,  gave  his  brother  a 
knife,  and  provided  both  with  "strong  water,"  biscuits, 
and  butter.  The  "Emperor"  ate  and  drank  with  relish 
and  distributed  what  was  left  to  his  followers.  After 
further  speeches  on  either  side,  Massasoit  with  some  of 
his  warriors  started  down  to  the  town  brook.  Standish, 
Allerton,  and  six  men,  armed  with  muskets,  saluted,  re- 
ceived him,  and  marched  with  such  ceremony  as  they 
might  up  the  street  to  one  of  the  houses,  in  which  they 
had  placed  a  green  rug  and  some  cushions.  Having 
seated  the  "Emperor,"  Governor  Carver  came  to  visit 
him,  escorted  by  a  small  body  guard,  to  the  blowing  of  a 
trumpet  and  the  beating  of  a  drum.  He  kissed  the 
Indian's  hand  and  was  kissed  in  return;  they  drank 
"strong  waters"  together,  which  made  Massasoit  "sweat 
for  a  great  time  thereafter."  They  fed  him  a  liberal 
supply  of  meat,  and  then  concluded  with  him  what  they 
called  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  amity.  The  business 
thus  ended,  Massasoit  was  courteously  conducted  to  the 
brook  and  departed,  Winslow  now  returning  to  his 
friends.  Samoset  and  Squanto  remained  as  guests  of  the 
colony  for  some  little  time,  Samoset  eventually  taking 
up  his  residence  with  them. 

On  March  23,  Carver  was  reelected  Governor  for  the 
coming  year,  but  in  the  following  month  was  apparently 
sunstruck  on  one  of  the  warm  spring  days,  and,  weakened 
by  illness  and  over-exertion,  died.     William  Bradford 


The  First  Year  91 

was  elected  Governor  in  his  stead.  More  eloquent 
testimony  of  the  great  value  of  Bradford's  services  dur- 
ing the  past  three  months  could  not  have  been  given. 
In  England  he  had  been  but  a  lad,  and  in  Holland  had 
played  no  considerable  part  in  the  life  of  the  Church  that 
we  can  now  trace.  The  voyage  and  the  first  few  months 
at  Plymouth  displayed  convincingly  his  great  executive 
ability,  and  that  calm,  impartial  mind  to  which  Plym- 
outh was  to  owe  so  much.  Shortly  before  Carver's 
death,  the  Mayflower  left  for  England  and  the  Pilgrims 
were  now  thrown  upon  their  own  resources. 

Under  the  guidance  of  Squanto  they  planted  about  S 
twenty  acres  of  Indian  corn.  The  amount  of  labor 
involved  was  prodigious  for  twenty-one  men  and  six 
large  boys,  all  of  whom  had  been  sick  the  greater  part 
of  the  winter.  Goodwin  has  calculated  that  one  hundred 
thousand  holes  were  dug  with  a  hoe  or  mattock;  as  they 
buried  in  each  two  or  three  alewives,  caught  in  the  town 
brook,  they  must  have  carried  up  the  steep  banks  into 
the  fields  some  forty  tons  of  fish.  A  part  of  the  labor  of 
planting,  which  Squanto  taught  them,  was  the  necessity 
of  watching  the  corn  fields  to  keep  the  wolves  from  dig- 
ging up  the  alewives.  The  summer  was  occupied  with 
expeditions  to  the  neighboring  Indian  tribes  for  trade  in 
corn  and  furs,  and  in  the  cutting  of  a  great  supply  of 
clapboards,  which  was  considerable  enough  entirely  to 
fill  the  Fortune  when  she  arrived  in  the  autumn.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  these  clapboards  had  to  be  cut  by 
hand  with  axes  and  saws  and  were  then  carried  on  the 
Pilgrims'  backs  into  Plymouth  and  stored.  In  addition, 
they  completed  during  the  summer  seven  dwelling  houses 
and  four  buildings  for  common  purposes,  including  the 
common  house  and  store  houses.     So  prodigious  an 


92  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

amount  of  manual  labor  will  show  how  very  seriously  the 
Pilgrims  took  the  pledge  in  their  contract  to  labor  four 
days  for  the  merchants  and  two  for  themselves.  In 
September,  Standish,  Winslow,  Squanto,  and  eight  men 
made  a  trip  to  Boston  Harbor,  which  they  very  much 
admired,  and  sailed  home  well  content  with  a  con- 
siderable number  of  beaver  skins  which  they  expected  to 
export  to  England. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  exactly  what  Plymouth  must 
have  looked  like  in  its  first  year,  but  with  the  aid  of  a 
little  plan  left  us  by  Bradford  and  the  rather  explicit 
testimony  of  their  writings,  we  can  picture  to  ourselves  a 
small  plateau  of  land,  lying  about  thirty  feet  above  the 
harbor,  and  sloping  back  to  Fort  Hill,  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  feet  high.  "The  street,"  as  they  called  it  (now 
Leyden  Street),  ran  directly  toward  Fort  Hill,  at  some 
little  distance  from  the  town  brook,  to  the  path  which 
led  up  the  steep  incline.  On  the  left-hand  side,  approach- 
ing from  the  harbor,  came  first  the  Common  House,  then 
lots  assigned  to  Brown,  Goodman,  and  Brewster  succes- 
sively; on  the  right-hand  side,  lots  assigned  to  Fuller, 
Howland,  and  Hopkins.  A  highway  at  right  angles  to 
"the  street"  here  intervened.  The  remaining  space  to 
the  foot  of  the  hill  was  divided  into  four  lots  on  the  left 
of  the  street,  worked  by  Billington,  Allerton,  Cook,  and 
Winslow,  while  the  land  on  the  right  side  of  the  street 
was  divided  into  two  larger  lots,  one  held  by  Bradford  and 
the  other  by  Standish  and  Alden. 

On  these  twelve  lots  were  standing  seven  houses  of 
logs,  stuffed  with  mud,  with  heavy  thatch  roofs.  The 
windows  were  made  of  oiled  paper  and  the  doors  were 
probably  hung  on  crude  hinges  of  iron.  Out  beyond  the 
houses,  to  the  right  of  the  street,  lay  the  corn  fields  of  the 


The  First  Year  93 

old  Patuxets,  and,  on  the  other  side  of  the  brook,  were 
also  corn  fields,  though  it  seems  likely  that  at  this  time 
the  Pilgrims  did  not  utilize  them.  The  landing  place 
from  the  ships  lay  well  to  the  right  of  the  street  along  the 
harbor,  the  famous  rock,  the  only  rock  of  any  size  (with 
one  exception)  within  a  considerable  radius  of  Plymouth. 
The  Pilgrims  landed  in  reality,  not  upon  a  rockbound 
coast,  but  upon  sandbars  and  mud  spits,  and  this  rock 
was  the  only  landing  place  at  which  they  could  disembark 
without  wading  through  the  shallows. 1 

And  now  in  the  autumn  an  abundant  harvest  was 
reaped,  and,  with  the  houses  thus  completed  and  the 
fifty-one  survivors  in  excellent  health,  a  celebration  was 
held.  The  first  Thanksgiving  dinner  consisted  of  a 
plentiful  supply  of  wild  fowl,  deer,  and  hasty  pudding. 
Probably  none  of  the  butter,  cheese,  and  biscuits  brought 
from  England  were  left  at  this  time,  though  no  doubt 
brandy  and  schnapps  were  still  on  hand.  Some  modern 
admirers  of  the  Pilgrims  will  be  surprised  and  perhaps 
distressed  to  learn  that  this  historic  feast  was  graced  by 
the  presence  of  Massasoit  and  his  entire  tribe.  It  lasted 
at  least  three  days,  and  included  not  only  several  hearty 
meals  but  drilling,  simple  sports,  and  dancing  and  singing 
by  the  Indians,  who  played  by  far  the  most  considerable 
and  insistent  parts.  Not  improbably  the  first  Thanks- 
giving dinner  much  more  nearly  resembled  an  outdoor  v< 
barbecue,  attended  by  the  entire  population,  than  a 
grimly  decorous  meal,  eaten  solemnly  by  each  family  in 
its  own  house. 

1  Bradford  and  Winslow  mention  repeatedly  during  this  first 
year  wading  ashore  from  the  small  boats  and  their  inability  to  get 
ashore  when  the  tide  was  out;  evidently  it  was  some  time  before 
they  began  to  use  the  rock  as  a  landing  place. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PROBLEM  OF   SUBSISTENCE 

Scarcely  was  the  first  Thanksgiving  feast  over  than 
the  problem  of  subsistence  was  raised  anew  by  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Fortune  from  England  on  November  20-30, 
1 62 1,  with  thirty-five  new  colonists,  sent  out  by  the 
Pilgrims,  associates,  but  without  tools,  clothes,  or  food. 
For  the  succeeding  two  years  the  colonists  were  never 
for  a  moment  free  from  the  danger  of  starvation.  In- 
deed, in  the  summer  of  1623,  the  second  band  of  new- 
comers, who  landed  from  the  Anne,  found  their  friends 
"in  a  very  low  condition."  "Many  were  ragged  in 
aparel  and  some  litle  beter  than  halfe  naked.  .  .  .  For 
food  they  were  all  alike  save  some  that  had  got  a  few 
pease  of  the  ship  that  was  last  hear.  The  best  dish  they 
could  presente  their  freinds  with  was  a  lobster  or  a 
peece  of  fish,  without  bread  or  anything  els  but  a  cupp  of 
fair  spring  water."  1  Winslow  declared  that  he  had  often 
seen  men  staggering  at  noon  from  weakness  induced  by 
hunger.2  Grimly  the  Pilgrims  comforted  themselves  in 
the  absence  of  bread  with  the  words  of  Deuteronomy, 
that  "man  liveth  not  by  bread  only  but  by  every  word 
that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  doth  a  man 
live."  3 

For  six  years,  from  1621  to  1627,  questions  of  sub- 

1  Bradford,  History,  175. 

2  Winslow,  Good  News  from  New  England,  reprinted  in  Arber, 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  581. 

3  So  quoted  by  Bradford,  175. 

94 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  95 

sistence  and  of  trade,  explorations,  negotiations  with  the 
merchants,  visits  to  and  from  the  Indians,  threatened 
quarrels  with  Indians  and  other  white  men  continued  to 
engross  the  attention  of  the  Pilgrims  and  constitute  a 
narrative  difficult  to  follow  as  it  happened  day  by  day 
without  loss  of  perspective  and  of  a  sense  of  proportion. 
The  essential  unity  of  the  story  can,  however,  be  pre- 
served by  dealing  in  a  topical  fashion  with  the  serious 
problems  in  the  chronological  order  of  their  solution. - 
The  first  three  years,  despite  explorations,  relations  with 
the  Indians,  and  other  distractions,  were  almost  entirely 
devoted  to  the  question  of  subsistence.  This  happily 
was  solved  in  1623,  to  bother  them  no  more.  In  that 
year,  the  Indian  problem,  never  before  dangerous  or 
pressing,  came  suddenly  to  a  head,  demanded  prompt 
action,  and  was  also  successfully  and  adequately  met. 
While  the  Pilgrims  had  been  by  no  means  alone  on  the 
coast  since  1620,  it  was  not  until  1624  and  1625  that 
attempts  were  made  to  sow  civil  and  ecclesiastical  dis- 
cord at  Plymouth  and  to  induce  the  English  authorities 
to  undertake  the  supervision  and  examination  the  Pil- 
grims had  from  the  first  sincerely  dreaded.  These  dan- 
gers past,  their  relations  with  the  merchants,  never 
satisfactory,  came  to  an  open  breach  in  1625  and  neces- 
sitated in  1626  and  1627  a  thorough  reorganization  of  the 
little  colony.  Clarity  and  unity  have  therefore  dictated 
the  treatment  of  the  problem  of  subsistence  first,  and  it 
has  been  followed  by  consecutive  and  logical  analyses  of 
Indian  relations,  of  the  episodes  of  Lyford  and  Morton, ' 
and  of  the  tangled  negotiations  with  the  merchants, 
from  the  original  agreement  signed  at  Leyden  to  the 
dissolution  of  the  Merchant  Adventurers  and  the  creation 
of  the  Undertakers.    While  not  free  from  objection,  this 


96  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

treatment  seems  to  meet  in  some  measure  the  various 
requirements  of  a  history  which  shall  be  something  better 
than  a  brief  annalistic  sketch. 

The  sufferings  at  Plymouth  have  been  only  too  little 
emphasized  by  the  students  of  American  history.  So 
much  has  been  said  about  the  starvation  at  Jamestown 
that  it  is  time  we  realized  that  the  privation  at  Plym- 
outh was  as  great  and  the  devotion  and  forbearance 
greater.  The  explanation  of  these  three  years  of  suffer- 
ing is  not  far  to  seek.  The  original  plans,  so  carefully 
thought  out  in  Holland  for  the  little  colony,  had  re- 
garded as  perilous  a  settlement  colony  which  should 
maintain  itself  from  the  first  upon  the  proceeds  of  its 
own  labor.  They  had  therefore  decided  to  found  a 
permanent  trading  post,  supported  during  the  first 
years  of  its  life  by  supplies  sent  out  regularly  from  Eng- 
land by  the  Adventurers,  and  paid  for  by  the  proceeds 
of  the  fish,  furs,  and  lumber  which  the  colony  would 
return.  The  Pilgrims  had  felt  able  to  pledge  themselves 
to  work  four  days  in  the  week  for  the  merchants,  because 
they  fully  expected  the  latter  to  bear  the  real  burden 
of  supporting  the  colony,  while  they  were  working  out 
their  indebtedness.  In  addition,  Robinson  and  the 
leaders  had  laid  great  stress  on  the  importance  of  owner- 
ship by  the  colonists  of  one  or  more  ships  of  from  sixty 
to  one  hundred  tons  burden,  so  that  their  range  of  trad- 
ing might  be  wide,  and  so  that  thus  the  ships  themselves 
might  carry  the  proceeds  to  England  and  bring  back  the 
provisions  upon  which  the  new  colony  was  to  depend. 
It  seemed  indeed  a  definitely  safe  venture: — nothing 
more  than  conducting  from  the  New  World  the  sort  of 
trading  voyage  annually  prosecuted  from  England  and 
Holland  by  literally  hundreds  of  fishers  and  traders. 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  97 

From  the  first  a  profit  was  expected  in  excess  of  the  cost 
of  maintenance,  so  that  in  the  course  of  seven  years  the 
debt  of  the  Pilgrims  to  the  merchants  would  be  entirely 
extinguished,  and  they  would  then  be  at  liberty  to  utilize 
the  entire  proceeds  of  the  trade  for  their  own  support; 
this  they  would  still  expect  to  draw  from  England  as  they 
had  in  the  early  years. 

The  Speedwell  was  accordingly  bought  in  Holland 
"to  transport  them,  so  to  stay  in  the  cuntrie  and  atend 
upon  fishing  and  such  other  affairs  as  might  be  for  the 
good  and  benefite  of  the  colonie  when  they  come  ther."  A 
captain  and  crew  were  hired  to  remain  with  the  Pilgrims 
for  a  year  while  they  were  learning  to  operate  the  vessel. 
It  was  not  until  the  spring  of  162 1  that  the  full  scope  of 
the  calamity  became  clear  which  the  return  of  the  Speed- 
well had  involved.  It  was  not  until  the  fifty  survivors 
found  themselves  practically  marooned  in  Massachu- 
setts Bay  that  they  entirely  realized  how  radical  a 
change  of  plan  had  been  forced  upon  them,  that  they 
were  now  to  attempt  in  fact  the  experiment  which  they 
had  deemed  in  Holland  too  perilous  possibly  to  succeed. » 
The  original  plan  had  miscarried.  Nor  did  they  ever 
receive  that  prompt  support  from  the  Adventurers  in 
England  which  they  had  felt  it  so  important  to  secure 
when  the  original  contract  was  prepared.  The  Fortune 
arrived  in  162 1  indeed,  but  with  no  food.  The  Anne 
came  in  1623  but  brought  food  only  for  its  own  pas- 
sengers, and  the  subsequent  ships  brought  no  assistance 
except  cattle.  Both  features  of  the  original  plan  thus 
entirely  failed.  Here  unquestionably  lay  the  true  dif*- 
ficulty  of  the  Pilgrims.  Had  they  expected  to  subsist 
from  the  first  on  what  they  could  raise,  not  only  would 
their  equipment  have  been  different,  but  the  first  con- 


98  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

tract  with  the  merchants  would  have  been  as  unac- 
ceptable to  them  as  the  second,  and  probably  would  have 
been  deemed  entirely  unnecessary. 

The  great  practical  difficulty,  however,  presented  by 
the  problem  of  subsistence  in  these  first  years  was  the 
,  constant  necessity  of  feeding  more  mouths  than  they 
had  calculated  upon.  During  the  spring  and  summer  of 
162 1,  the  supply  of  food,  though  never  ample,  seems 
somehow  to  have  sufficed.  Although  provisions  were 
low  when  the  Mayflower  reached  Cape  Cod,  the  death 
of  half  the  company  and  of  a  considerable  number  of 
the  crew  made  it  possible  for  the  survivors  to  hold  out 
on  an  amount  of  food  entirely  insufficient  for  the  original 
emigrants.  In  the  autumn  of  162 1,  their  diligent  labor 
was  rewarded  with  a  harvest,  more  than  sufficient  for 
all  of  their  own  needs  for  the  coming  year,  and  they 
celebrated  the  autumn  festival  in  the  true  spirit  of  thank- 
fulness. But  within  a  few  weeks  the  Fortune  landed 
thirty-five  new  colonists,  sent  over  by  the  Adventurers 
with  neither  tools,  nor  clothes,  nor  food.  The  labor  of 
fifty  active  men  and  women  was  scarcely  to  be  expected 
to  suffice  for  the  sustenance  of  thirty-five  extra  mouths, 
who  had  contributed  nothing  to  the  work  of  raising  the 
food.  Want  at  once  stared  the  colony  in  the  face.  Half 
rations  became  imperative,  and  indeed  it  was  doubtful 
whether  the  food  could  be  made  to  hold  out  until  the 
following  harvest.  They  seem  to  have  expected  a  ship 
from  England  with  large  supplies  of  food  in  the  spring 
of  1622.  Instead  there  arrived  seven  more  men,  the 
forerunners  of  a  colony  sent  out  by  Weston  on  another 
ship,  and  whom  he  asked  the  Pilgrims  to  shelter  and 
feed  for  the  time  being.  Soon  Weston's  new  colony  it- 
self appeared  at  Plymouth,  some  sixty  husky  men,  who 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  99 

brought  their  own  food  to  be  sure,  but  who  insisted  upon 
levying  toll  on  the  Pilgrims'  growing  corn  to  supplement 
their  own  diet.  There  was  thus  constant  necessity  dur- 
ing the  first  two  years  of  stretching  the  food  supplies 
to  meet  entirely  unforeseen  emergencies.  Nor  should 
we  forget  that  the  entertainment  of  the  Indians  was 
a  great  drain  on  the  slender  resources  of  a  community \y 
numbering  only  about  fifty.  Constant  presents  to 
Massasoit  of  food  and  occasional  entertainment  of 
anywhere  from  five  to  ninety  Indians  was  no  small  item 
with  a  larder  so  insufficiently  stocked. 

All  this  would  perhaps  have  been  less  serious  had 
there  been  available  any  other  source  of  supply  in 
America  for  such  food  as  the  Pilgrims  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  eat.  That  none  such  existed  the  year  1622 
proved  only  too  definitely.  In  May,  after  the  colony 
had  been  long  upon  short  allowance,  the  food  was  lit- 
erally gone,  and  desperate  attempts  were  made  by 
Bradford,  Winslow,  and  Standish  to  discover  some  new 
supply.  Nothing  has  more  puzzled  their  biographers 
than  this  fact,  that,  in  a  land  fairly  alive  with  game, 
the  waters  of  which  were  crowded  with  fish,  the  shores 
of  which  were  strewn  with  lobsters,  clams,  eels,  and 
oysters,  in  whose  woods  and  fields  grew  quantities  of 
edible  berries,  the  Pilgrims  literally  starved.  Perhaps 
one  might  say  that  our  amazement  results  from  the  fact 
that  they  felt  themselves  to  be  starving  when  forced  to 
eat  shell  fish  and  game.  Some  have  supposed  that  the"" 
truth  lay  in  their  inability  to  catch  the  fish  or  kill  the 
game,  and  it  seems  indeed  extraordinary  that  they  pos- 
sessed no  nets  strong  enough  to  hold  cod  and  the  other 
large  fish  which  abounded,  and  on  the  other  hand  no 
hooks  small  enough  to  catch  the  fish  which  teemed  in 


ioo  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

New  England  waters.  They  came  from  a  land  of  hunters 
to  a  land  of  game;  they  sailed  from  a  land  of  fishermen 
for  a  land  of  fish;  and  seem  to  have  been  neither  pre- 
pared nor  able  to  kill  the  one  or  catch  the  other. 

Certainly  it  was  not  for  lack  of  firearms  or  of  powder, 
because  in  1622,  when  the  need  for  food  was  greatest, 
Standish  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  drilling  small  com- 
panies of  men  and  allowed  them  to  fire  volleys  and  salutes 
in  the  course  of  the  manceuvers.  If  powder  was  too 
scarce  to  be  used  in  getting  food,  surely  it  would  not  have 
been  burned  in  practice  drills.  We  must  perhaps  remem- 
ber that  the  small  arms  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
exceedingly  inaccurate  in  bore,  and  consequently  that 
it  was  most  difficult  to  hit  an  object  at  any  distance, 
and  particularly  difficult  to  hit  a  moving  object.  The 
Pilgrims  moreover  had,  with  one  or  two  possible  excep- 
tions, never  used  firearms,  and  needed  a  year  or  two  of 
practice  to  become  accustomed  to  their  muskets.  In 
their  first  encounter  with  the  Indians,  they  tell  us  of 
potting  at  the  Indian  chief  only  half  a  musket's  shot 
distance  and  of  missing  him  again  and  again.  They 
improved,  however,  for  Winslow  reports  hitting  a  crow 
at  eighty  yards  and  a  duck  at  one  hundred  and  twenty 
yards,  and  in  the  autumn  of  162 1  four  men  killed  enough 
game  in  one  day  to  feed  the  whole  colony  for  a  week. 
Whatever  the  difficulties  may  have  been  in  the  first 
months,  they  were  certainly  overcome.1 

We  must  perhaps  ascribe  something  to  the  English- 
man's well-known  insistence  upon  his  European  diet 
and  to  his  extraordinary  dislike  to  accept  any  radical 

1  Bradford  told  De  Rassieres  in  1627  that  three  men  in  a  shallop 
could  catch  as  much  cod  in  the  harbor  in  three  hours  as  the  whole 
colony  could  eat  in  a  day.    Goodwin,  The  Pilgrim  Republic,  307. 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  101 

change  in  it.  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  whatever  that 
the  Pilgrims  resolutely  refused  to  eat  anything  but  the 
food  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed,  until  actual 
hunger  drove  them  to  it.  Like  all  Europeans  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  their  common 
drink  in  England .  and  Holland  had  been  small  beer 
and  they  could  not  at  first  believe  that  the  drinking  of 
water  would  not  be  followed  by  terrible  diseases.1  Some 
considerable  persuasion  even  seems  to  have  been  neces- 
sary on  the  part  of  the  leaders  to  induce  some  to  try  the 
experiment  at  all.  Previous  experience  had  accustomed 
them  to  bread  as  the  chief  staple  of  diet  and  they  seem 
to  have  believed  it  impossible  to  maintain  health,  unless 
one-half  qr  two-thirds  of  all  they  ate  was  bread.  They 
therefore  seem  to  have  eaten  their  bread  in  the  accus- 
tomed proportion  as  long  as  it  lasted,  and  then  to  have 
considered  that  a  diet  of  shell-fish,  water,  berries,  and 
game  was  literally  starvation. 

Otherwise  it  is  difficult  to  explain  the  extraordinary 
efforts  made  to  eke  out  the  slender  stores  of  grain  which 
they  possessed  and  to  replenish  them  even  at  exorbitant 
cost.  Expeditions  were  sent  out  to  buy  corn  from  the 
Indians  and  with  some  success,  but  the  shallop  was  so 
small  that  the  radius  within  which  they  could  cruise 
prevented  them  from  collecting  any  considerable  amount 
of  grain.  The  Speedwell  would  have  allowed  them  to 
cruise  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Hudson  and  to  have 

1  Among  objections  made  by  those  who  returned  to  England 
stood  prominently:  "6.  ob:  die  water  is  not  wholsome."  To 
which  Bradford  replied:  "Ans:  if  they  mean,  not  so  wholsome 
as  the  good  beere  and  wine  in  London  (which  they  so  dearly  love) 
we  will  not  dispute  with  them;  but  els,  for  water,  it  is  as  good  as 
any  in  the  world  (for  ought  we  knowe),  and  it  is  wholsome  enough 
to  us  that  can  be  contente  therwith."  -History,  194-195. 


102  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

tapped  the  abundant  supplies  of  the  Connecticut  In- 
dians. Some  attempt  was  made  to  encourage  the  resi- 
dent Indians  to  plant  more  corn  on  the  expectation  of 
selling  it  to  the  Pilgrims,  but  the  tribes  in  the  neighbor- 
hood had  been  too  much  decimated  by  the  plague  to 
sow  any  considerable  area  of  ground.  From  the  English 
fishing  ships  in  Massachusetts  Bay  some  food  was  pro- 
cured during  the  summer  of  1622.  From  the  ships  that 
put  in  at  Plymouth  something  more  was  had,  but  from 
all  of  these  sources  only  a  very  small  total. 

Nothing  is  perhaps  more  admirable  in  the  whole  an- 
nals of  the  Pilgrims  than  their  generosity,  magnanimity, 
and  forbearance  in  these  two  critical  years.  They  were 
under  no  obligation  to  feed  and  house  Weston's  seven 
men  or  to  show  hospitality  to  his  colony  of  sixty  when 
they  appeared  in  July,  1622.  Weston  himself  had  al- 
ready sold  his  interest  in  the  Adventurers,  and  had 
quarreled  with  the  Pilgrims  so  decidedly  before  they 
left  England,  that  they  could  scarcely  have  been  blamed, 
if  they  had  felt  that  under  the  circumstances  they  could 
hardly  share  their  pittance  with  him.  But  they  made 
no  protest  and  indeed  sought  to  assist  him  in  every  way. 
Those  of  his  men  who  were  sick  were  kept  at  Plymouth 
until  Fuller,  the  Pilgrims'  doctor,  had  cured  them. 

The  harvest  of  1622,  while  reasonably  good,  again 
proved  insufficient,  largely  because  the  depredations 
made  upon  the  young  growing  corn  by  Weston's  men  and 
by  the  Pilgrims  themselves  had  reduced  its  quantity.  In 
the  spring  of  1623  actual  starvation  again  was  in  pros- 
pect. The  leaders  now  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
true  difficulty  lay  in  the  "common  course  and  condi- 
tion," in  the  contract  with  the  Adventurers,  and  in  the 
peculiar  social  and  economic  conditions  which  had  re- 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  103 

suited  from  it.  Having  rejected  the  revised  agreement 
with  the  merchants,  they  had  considered  themselves  the 
more  obligated  to  observe  the  original  stipulations.  The 
Pilgrims,  the  Adventurers  who  came  with  them,  and 
the  laborers  and  servants  had  worked  together  for  the 
common  interest;  all  food  and  all  supplies  had  been  held 
in  common;  all  the  proceeds  of  the  trading  became  com- 
mon property.  While  the  common  stock  by  no  means 
precluded  the  devotion  of  the  entire  labor  of  the  little 
community  to  the  raising  of  food,  they  had  worked 
faithfully  and  conscientiously  in  the  dressing  of  lumber 
and  in  the  collection  of  furs,  for  the  leaders  were  anxious 
to  prove  that  under  the  first  contract  profit  was  possible. 
Then,  in  November,  1621,  Cushman  had  arrived  on  the 
Fortune  and  had  at  last  induced  them  to  accept  and  sign 
the  revised  articles  with  the  Adventurers,  by  which  ac- 
cordingly the  work  of  the  two  succeeding  years  had  been 
regulated.  They  were  now  bound  to  devote  the  whole 
of  their  time  to  work  for  the  common  stock,  with  a 
definite  implication  that  the  collection  of  goods  to  return 
to  England  was  on  no  account  to  be  suspended.  This 
the  Pilgrims  accepted  seriously.  Their  diligence  must 
have  been  great  and  certainly  a  good  half  of  their  labor, 
if  not  more,  went  into  the  "many  other  imployments" 
which  Bradford  mentions. 

The  leaders  now  concluded  that  they  could  make 
profit  for  the  Adventurers  if  supported  from  England,  or 
that  they  could  easily  maintain  themselves  from  the 
fruits  of  their  labor  in  New  England,  if  only  the  colony 
gave  its  entire  time  to  the  problem  of  sustenance.1 

1  Bradford  thus  translated  Seneca: 

"A  greate  part  of  libertie  is  a  well  governed  belly  and  to  be     v_ 
patiente  in  all  wants." 


104  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

They  could  spend  six  days  a  week  in  the  employ  of  the 
merchants  only  at  the  grave  risk  of  starvation.  It  was 
clear  by  this  time  that  no  regular  supplies  of  food  were 
to  be  looked  for  from  England  and  they  therefore  deter- 
mined to  abandon  work  in  common  for  a  new  system. 
As  much  land  was  alloted  to  each  man  and  his  family  as 
it  was  thought  he  could  possibly  till;  each  was  to  retain 
for  his  own  use  the  entire  proceeds,  but  was  on  the  other 
hand  to  be  responsible  for  his  own  sustenance.1  A  great 
gain  was  immediately  visible  in  the  spring  of  1623  in  the 
amount  of  labor  expended  as  well  as  in  its  efficiency. 
Many  energetic  and  capable  men  had  been  unwilling  to 
work  as  hard  as  they  could,  since  they  had  realized  that 
their  energy  would  merely  relieve  the  indifferent  and  the 
lazy  from  the  necessity  of  working  at  all.  Others  had 
therefore  shirked  and  had  done  as  little  work  as  they 
could,  with  the  confident  knowledge  that  the  common 
store  of  food  would  give  them  as  much  to  eat  as  the 
others  had,  and  that  the  leaders  were  far  too  conscien- 
tious and  merciful  to  allow  even  the  laggards  to  starve. 
Those  who  had  not  worked  before  now  began  under  the 
new  system  to  work.  Those  who  already  worked,  worked 
more;  those  who  had  done  well,  worked  better.2 

Moreover,  the  wives  and  children  had  complained  of 
labor  in  the  fields;  several  of  the  men  had  demurred  at 
allowing  their  wives  and  young  children  to  work  for 
Adventurers  in  London  and  servants  in  America,  and  for 
young  unmarried  men  whom  they  felt  well  able  to  look 
after  themselves.  Now  the  women  and  children  gladly 
worked  in  their  own  fields  and  gardens,  and  felt  no 
indignity  nor  grudged  the  pains.    Thus  in  all  these  ways 

1  Bradford,  History,  162-164. 

2  Winslow,  Good  News  from  New  England,  in  Arber,  575-581. 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  105 

an  immense  gain  in  the  quantity  and  quality  of  labor 
devoted  to  the  problem  of  subsistence  was  made.  The 
whole  colony  in  the  year  1623  devoted  its  prime  efforts 
to  the  harvest,  with  the  very  satisfactory  and  clear 
result  that  all  doubts  as  to  its  future  ability  to  maintain 
itself  vanished.  To  anticipate  a  little,  after  1623  no 
more  considerable  bands  of  new  settlers  arrived  who 
brought  no  food.  The  newcomers  formed  also  a  smaller 
proportion  of  the  colony  than  had  the  Fortune  emi- 
grants and  therefore  were  a  less  serious  problem.  The 
artificial  drains  on  the  food  supply  ceased  at  the  very 
time  when  they  might  more  easily  have  been  met.  The 
satisfaction  of  the  people  under  the  new  system  was 
immeasurably  greater,  despite  the  fact  that  they  had  not 
been  given  ownership  of  the  land,  but  merely  the  right 
to  use  it  for  a  limited  time. 

Perplexities  and  fears  continued  still  throughout  the 
summer  of  1623.  After  so  great  an  amount  of  corn  had 
been  planted,  drought  set  in  for  six  weeks;  during  June 
and  July  practically  no  rain  fell;  and  some  of  the  colony 
began  to  despair,  for  much  of  the  corn  began  to  shrivel 
and  wilt.  There  came  news  that  a  ship  with  supplies 
had  been  sent  them  from  England  but  had  been  forced 
to  turn  back.  Even  the  most  courageous  seem  to  have 
faltered  a  little  during  these  trying  weeks.  Finally  a  day 
of  fasting  and  humiliation  was  set.  The  Pilgrims  as- 
sembled in  the  little  meeting  room  on  Fort  Hill  and 
prayed  there  continuously  and  fervently  for  eight  or  nine 
hours  as  the  Scripture  directed,  " without  ceasing." 
On  the  next  morning  gentle  showers  began  and  continued 
practically  a  fortnight.  The  harvest  was  saved.  It  is 
difficult  for  us  to  understand  the  theological  significance 
they  attached  to  this  incident.    It  seemed  to  them  lit- 


106  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

erally  a  miracle  wrought  by  God  in  their  favor  to 
indicate  His  blessing  upon  their  enterprise.  Just  as  the 
drought  itself,  with  the  months  of  famine  which  had  pre- 
ceded it,  had  signified  the  curse  of  God  upon  them,  His 
desire  to  inform  them  that  their  enterprise  did  not  meet 
His  approval,  so  now  elation,  confidence  in  their  correct 
reading  of  God's  intention,  came  to  them  and  never  left 
them.  From  this  moment  they  were  convinced  that  God 
intended  the  enterprise  to  succeed. 

When  therefore,  toward  the  end  of  July,  the  Anne 
arrived,  and  some  days  after,  the  Little  James,  the  new- 
comers found  a  colony  alert,  full  of  determination  and 
hope,  little  regarding  the  ragged  state  of  their  European 
clothes  and  their  lack  of  certain  staples  of  diet,  which 
two  years  before  they  had  considered  essential.  The 
newcomers*  were  partly  people  sent  by  the  Adventurers, 
partly  members  of  the  Leyden  congregation  who  had 
come  over  to  join  their  friends,  and  partly  "particulars," 
who  had  paid  their  passage  to  the  Adventurers,  and  who 
wished  to  settle  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  and  govern 
themselves.  Now  arose  a  burning  question.  The  old 
settlers  were  very  unwilling  that  the  newcomers  should 
be  received  on  any  basis  which  recognized  their  right 
to  share  in  the  new  crop,  for  fear  of  a  repetition  of  their 
fate  in  162 1  and  1622.  The  newcomers  saw  the  condition 
of  the  old  settlers  and  their  lack  of  European  food,  and 
were  afraid  that,  if  the  supply,  which  they  had  brought 
to  last  them  until  the  following  spring,  should  be  shared 
with  the  old  settlers,  they  too  would  be  reduced  to  clams 
and  Indian  corn  in  the  near  future.  This  seemed  to  them 
akin  to  starvation.  There  were  those  too,  particularly 
the  men  sent  out  by  the  Adventurers,  who  had  expected 
to  find  rude  houses,  woods,  and  Indians,  but  who  had 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  107 

also  looked  forward  to  good  food  and  plenty  of  it,  with 
cattle,  milk,  meat,  beer,  and  the  other  staples  of  English 
diet.  They  were  not  at  all  sure  that  they  wished  to 
remain  in  the  colony  on  any  terms,  and  some  of  them 
were  so  outspoken  and  disagreeable,  that  Bradford  sent 
them  back  to  England  when  the  ship  returned. 

After  heated  discussion,  a  settlement  was  at  last 
reached.  The  old  settlers  should  retain  their  crop  entire, 
each  man  his  own  planting,  should  have  no  share  in  the 
new  supply  brought  on  the  Anne  but  should  be  in  no 
sense  responsible  for  the  maintenance  of  the  newcomers. 
The  newcomers  were  allowed  to  keep  the  entire  supply 
of  food  they  had  brought,  and  gladly  sacrificed  any 
expectations  they  might  otherwise  have  entertained  of 
sharing  in  the  supplies  of  the  old  settlers.  They  were 
allotted  land  to  till,  the  produce  of  which  they  should 
keep.  The  "particulars,"  who  came  on  their  own  account 
and  who  had  had  visions  of  building  great  houses  in 
pleasant  situations  and  of  becoming  suddenly  rich  from 
the  fish  and  fur  trade,  speedily  saw  the  error  of  their 
assumptions  and  came  to  terms  with  the  colony.  They 
received  allotments  of  land  within  the  limits  of  the 
town,  agreed  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the 
Governor  and  the  Assistants,  and  to  obey  all  laws  which 
had  been  made.  They  were  freed  from  any  obligation  to 
collect  furs  or  lumber  in  accordance  with  the  agreement 
the  Pilgrims  were  still  observing  with  the  merchants,  but 
were  accordingly  debarred  entirely  from  the  right  to 
trade  with  the  Indians,  so  long  as  the  contract  with  the 
merchants  should  endure.  They  were  to  pay  a  tax  of  one 
bushel  of  maize  for  every  male  more  than  sixteen  years 
old.  Eventually  most  of  them  became  members  of  the 
colony. 


108  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

The  abundant  harvest  of  that  year  put  an  end  for  all 
time  to  the  fears  of  the  ability  of  the  colony  to  maintain 
itself,  so  long  as  its  real  strength  and  energy  was  given 
to  the  problem  of  subsistence.  The  credit  for  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problems  of  the  first  years  belongs  undoubt- 
edly to  William  Bradford.  As  Brewster  had  been  the 
outstanding  figure  of  the  English  period,  as  Robinson 
had  dominated  the  group  at  Ley  den,  so  Bradford  at 
once  became  the  leader  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth. 
While  we  must  not  forget  the  effective  work  of  Carver, 
the  undoubted  influence  of  Brewster,  or  the  able  co- 
operation of  Allerton,  Winslow,  and  Standish,  Brad- 
ford towers  above  them  all  as  the  true  hero  of  the  first 
years.  The  work  of  the  Governor  at  that  time  must 
have  been  difficult  and  laborious  in  the  extreme.  He 
was  foreman  of  a  band  of  laborers  and  must  allot  them 
their  tasks.  He  was  an  overseer,  who  must  see  that  they 
performed  them  duly  and  well.  He  was  storekeeper, 
receiving  the  proceeds  of  the  work,  doling  out  day  by 
day  supplies  from  the  common  stock.  He  was  mag- 
istrate and  policeman,  rendering  decisions,  arresting 
offenders,  punishing  them  himself.  But  beyond  all 
question,  his  labors  as  foreman  and  overseer  in  the  first 
three  years  took  time,  strength,  tact,  and  patience  to 
an  extraordinary  degree. 

One  last  fright  they  had  late  in  the  fall  of  1623.  The 
harvest  had  been  reaped  and  piled  in  the  storehouses. 
Gorges's  ship  was  in  the  harbor  on  its  way  back  to  Eng- 
land from  Virginia.  The  seamen  were  on  shore  roister- 
ing, as  Bradford  says,  in  one  of  the  houses,  and  had 
built  a  great  fire  because  of  the  cold  weather.  The 
chimney  was  not  sufficiently  well  constructed  to  resist 
the  heat;  the  thatch  burst  into  flames;  and  three  or 


The  Problem  of  Subsistence  109 

four  houses  were  burned.  The  house,  in  which  the  fire 
started,  was  next  the  storehouse  in  which  were  all  the  pro- 
visions and  the  goods  for  trading  with  the  Indians.  Some 
would  have  thrown  them  out  into  the  street,  but  others 
feared  theft.  So  a  trusty  company  was  placed  within, 
and  the  rest  of  the  Pilgrims  extinguished  the  sparks  as 
they  fell.  In  the  midst  of  the  tumult,  a  voice  was  heard 
that  bade  them  look  about  them,  for  all  near  them  were 
not  friends.  Shortly  after  smoke  was  seen  rising  from 
a  shed  near  the  end  of  the  storehouse.  There  they  found 
a  firebrand,  a  yard  long,  thrust  well  into  the  refuse.  Once 
more,  they  felt  the  judgment  of  God  was  in  their  favor. 

Pory's  Description  of  Plymouth  in  1622.  When  this  volume  was 
about  to  go  to  press,  appeared  Mr.  Champlin  Burrage's  John 
Pory's  Lost  Description  of  Plymouth  Colony  in  the  Earliest  Days  of 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  .  .  .  Boston  and  New  York,  19 18,  pp.  xxiv  + 
65.  Edition  limited  to  365  numbered  copies.  Pory's  brief  letter 
(pp.  35-44)  is  by  no  means  our  earliest  information  about  Plym- 
outh, as  Mr.  Burrage  seems  to  imply  in  his  preface,  for  Mourt's 
Relation  was  written  in  162 1  and  was  published  in  London  in  1622, 
but  it  is  the  first  account  by  an  outsider  and  was  written  in  Jan. 
and  Feb.  1622-23  about  a  visit  in  the  previous  June  or  July.  The 
only  interesting  fact  about  it  is  Pory's  omission  of  any  information 
about  the  inhabitants  or  the  conditions  of  life.  True,  we  learn  that 
they  are  a  virtuous  people,  have  built  a  strong  stockade  and  fort, 
and  are  at  peace  with  the  Indians.  But  not  a  suggestion  of  their 
Separatism,  of  their  straits  for  food,  of  their  active  dislike  for  the 
diet  of  fish,  shellfish,  game,  and  berries  about  which  Pory  discourses 
so  volubly.  He  repeats  Bradford's  boast  that  the  climate  was  so 
healthful  that  none  had  died  for  a  whole  year.  This  was  the  literal 
truth  but  concealed  the  fearful  mortality  of  the  first  six  months. 
Either  they  were  able  to  hide  from  him  the  real  condition  of  the 
colony  as  Bradford  has  described  it  or  they  persuaded  him  he 
could  render  them  very  material  assistance  by  silence.  Pory's 
letter  to  Bradford  (History,  153-154)  makes  us  practically  certain 
that  this  letter  tells  not  what  he  saw  at  Plymouth  but  what  he  and 
they  judged  it  expedient  should  be  believed  in  England. 


CHAPTER  IX 

STANDISH  AND  THE  PROBLEM  OF  DEFENCE 

In  the  same  year  in  which  the  problem  of  subsistence 
was  so  happily  solved,  another  was  disposed  of,  to  bother 
them  no  more,  the  problem  of  defence.  No  phase  of  the 
adventure  had  so  appalled  the  congregation  of  Robin- 
son at  its  meetings  in  the  large  house  at  Leyden  as  the 
wilderness  and  its  savage  inhabitants.  All  the  imagina- 
tive vagaries  of  Vespucius  and  the  Spanish  tales  of 
Aztec  and  Peruvian  barbarism  came  to  them  magnified 
and  distorted  in  books  about  America  which  the  credu- 
lous in  sixteenth  century  Europe  eagerly  devoured.  They 
saw  illimitable  forests  and  splendid  fields,  filled  with 
furious  hordes  of  savages,  whom  they  seem  to  have  sup- 
posed a  sort  of  combination  of  all  the  monstrosities  in 
the  travelogues  of  medieval  Munchausens.  To  be  sure 
from  fishermen  and  explorers  who  had  actually  been  in 
America  far  less  terrifying  tales  came  to  them.  The 
congregation  at  Leyden  was  divided  as  to  which  should 
be  credited,  and  even  those  who  had  scouted  wild  stories 
and  had  in  consequence  departed  for  America  had  not 
been  without  misgivings.  As  they  stood  on  the  deck  of 
the  Mayflower  and  inspected  the  quiet  shores  of  Cape 
Cod,  they  shuddered  as  they  thought  of  the  possibilities. 
Bradford  voiced  this  fear  in  no  uncertain  tones.  Such 
fears  were  not  unnatural  in  honest  yeomen  and  peasants 
who  had  spent  their  lives  behind  the  plow,  loom,  or 
printing  press,  who  had  never  smelt  powder  fired  in 
earnest,  or  seen  beasts  wilder  than  the  North  country 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence  in 

cattle,  nor  life  more  dangerous  than  ruminative  agricul- 
ture in  the  fens  of  the  Trent,  or  manufacturing  in  peace- 
ful Leyden.  Wars  and  the  rumors  of  wars  in  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  had  stalked  about, 
knocking  their  heads  upon  the  clouds,  but  real  danger 
and  adventure  had  passed  the  Pilgrims  by. 

Their  apprehensions  had  found  expression  in  an 
armament  disproportionate  to  their  means.  They  seem 
to  have  brought  sufficient  equipment  for  eighteen  or 
twenty  men,  that  is,  for  fully  one-third  of  all  the  male 
passengers:  quilted  cotton  coats  for  armor  (the  thickets 
of  Cape  Cod  could  scarcely  have  torn  steel  breastplates), 
several  cannon,  muskets  of  the  older  pattern,  fired  with 
lighted  tow,  and  some  snaphances,  exploded  by  a  flint 
which  struck  a  spark  in  a  pan  of  powder,  all  far  more 
modern  pieces  than  those  commonly  used  in  Europe  for 
half  a  century.  They  had  also  secured  the  services  of  a 
professional  soldier,  an  item  of  expense  by  no  means 
negligible  in  their  case.  To  talk  thus  about  arms  and 
the  problem  of  defense  for  a  little  community  of  one 
hundred  people,  who  found  to  oppose  them  Indian  tribes 
of  no  more  than  fifty  or  sixty  men,  seems  an  exaggeration 
of  language.  We  shall  find  warlike  expeditions  of  six 
men,  conspiracies  threatening  the  life  of  the  colony  ex- 
tinguished by  eight  men,  battles  fought,  one  might  say, 
by  Standish  alone,  like  the  first  encounter.  But  weak 
as  the  Indians  were,  they  were  still  sufficiently  numerous 
to  be  a  matter  of  concern  to  the  Pilgrims.  We  must  not 
forget  that,  after  the  " general  sickness"  of  the  winter 
of  1620-21,  the  little  colony  only  mustered  twenty-one 
men  and  six  boys,  and,  even  after  the  coming  of  the 
Fortune  numbered  not  more  than  fifty,  while  even  in 
1630  the  male  population  able  to  bear  arms  scarcely 


ii2  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

exceeded  one  hundred  and  fifty.  If  we  think  less  of 
figures  than  of  facts,  less  of  the  men  concerned  and 
more  of  the  issues  at  stake,  less  of  the  safety  of  a  single 
colony  and  more  of  the  persistence  of  a  certain  trend  of 
thought  and  of  a  certain  example,  we  shall  perhaps  at- 
tain that  measure  of  interest,  in  these  first  details  with 
the  Indians,  which  the  Pilgrims  themselves  experienced.1 
The  joyful  fact  was  soon  clear  to  them  that  they  were 
in  no  danger  of  being  scalped  the  moment  they  set 
foot  on  shore.  The  Indians  seen  in  the  first  explorations 
ran  with  such  celerity  that  the  Pilgrims  scarce  caught 
sight  of  them.  The  First  Encounter  passed  off  with- 
out real  danger,  so  that  they  were  much  emboldened 
and  resolved  in  the  future  to  show  a  stiff  front.  As  the 
weeks  passed,  they  concluded  that  the  Indians  of  the 
vicinity  really  were  peaceably  disposed.  Again  and 
again  two  or  three  men  had  been  alone  in  the  woods  or 
fields,  had  seen  Indians  sometimes  nearby,  sometimes 
at  a  distance,  but  had  not  been  molested.  The  coming 
of  Samoset  and  Squanto  showed  that  there  were  many 
Indians  who  had  seen  white  men  before,  who  had  re- 
ceived kind  treatment,  and  were  well-disposed.  They 
learned  also  of  others,  like  the  Nausets,  from  whom 
Captain  Hunt  had  kidnapped  several  men  and  carried 
them  to  England,  and  who  were  in  consequence  hostile 
to  all  white  men.  The  traders  and  fishermen,  French 
and  English,  who  had  voyaged  up  and  down  the  coast 

1  The  contemporary  accounts  written  in  the  first  four  years  deal 
at  inordinate  length  with  the  Indians,  their  manners  and  customs, 
and  with  the  events  related  in  this  chapter.  The  reader  will  find 
them  conveniently  reprinted  in  Arber's  The  Pilgrim  Fathers.  An 
older  edition  is  Young's  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  There 
have  been  various  special  reprints  for  bibliophiles. 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence  113 

for  some  decades,  had  thus  made  themselves  known, 
but  in  the  main  their  legacy  to  the  Pilgrims  was  one 
of  friendship  and  reliance  upon  the  white  man's  good 
faith. 

Indeed,  during  the  first  two  years  the  Pilgrims  seem 
to  have  been  in  no  danger  whatever  from  Indian  hos- 
tility. The  real  danger  lay  in  the  probability  that  the 
Indians  would  consume  their  entire  supplies  of  food. 
Far  from  it  proving  true  that  the  Indians  preferred 
roasted  collops  of  human  flesh,  as  the  Pilgrims  had  be- 
lieved in  Holland,  their  liking  for  beer,  strong  water, 
biscuits,  butter,  and  such  other  things  as  the  Pilgrims 
could  ill  afford  to  dispense  in  large  quantities,  made 
their  friendship  more  burdensome  and  really  more  dan- 
gerous to  the  immediate  future  of  the  colony  than  their 
enmity  would  have  been.  One  village,  some  fifteen 
miles  from  Plymouth,  in  particular  annoyed  them  by 
the  continual  resort  of  its  population  to  Plymouth  for 
food,  lodging,  and  diversion.  From  fifty  to  one  hundred 
Indians,  male  and  female,  might  appear  at  any  moment 
without  warning  and  expect  to  be  fed  for  two  or  three 
days. 

From  Squanto,  Hobomok,  and  others,  the  Pilgrims 
soon  learned  the  main  facts  about  the  Indians  in  New 
England.  The  Confederacy  to  which  the  Plymouth 
Indians  had  belonged  was  the  Pokanoket,  of  which 
Massasoit  was  sachem,  with  residence  at  Sowams  (now 
Warren)  on  Narragansett  Bay.  It  included  the  small 
tribes  of  southeastern  Massachusetts  and  eastern  Rhode 
Island,  numbered  perhaps  three  thousand  warriors 
before  the  plague  of  16 17,  and  only  about  three  hundred 
after  the  visitation.  The  Patuxets  at  Plymouth  had 
entirely  disappeared  in  the  plague  and  Massasoit's  own 


ii4  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

tribe  now  numbered  only  about  sixty  warriors.  To 
the  north  of  them,  around  Weymouth,  Boston,  and 
Newton,  was  the  Massachusetts  Confederacy,  composed 
of  a  considerable  number  of  small  tribes,  which  had 
been  so  decimated  by  the  plague  that  scarcely  one  hun- 
dred warriors  were  left  and  its  allegiance  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  Massasoit.  Further  north  in  northeastern 
Massachusetts,  southern  New  Hampshire,  and  the 
southern  corner  of  Maine  were  the  Pawtuckets,  who 
had  also  been  so  decimated  by  the  plague  as  practically 
to  disappear  from  history  by  1620.  Central  Massachu- 
setts contained  a  few  scattered  and  disorganized  tribes, 
vassals  of  the  Mohawks,  while  western  Massachusetts, 
the  whole  of  Vermont,  and  northern  New  Hampshire 
were  vacant,  having  been  depopulated  in  all  probability 
by  the  Mohawks  to  furnish  a  hunting  preserve. 

From  Narragansett  Bay  along  Long  Island  Sound  to 
the  Hudson  and  as  far  north  as  the  present  boundary  of 
Massachusetts  was  the  most  densely  populated  Indian 
district  north  of  Mexico.  Here  were  at  least  two  power- 
ful Confederacies,  numerous,  capable,  and  untouched  by 
the  plague — the  Pequod  Confederacy  around  the  Con- 
necticut River  and  the  Narragansetts  to  the  east  of 
them.  The  total  Indian  population  of  New  England  in 
1620  did  not  exceed  fifty  thousand  and  was  perhaps  not 
greater  than  twenty-five  thousand,  the  great  majority 
being  in  these  two  Confederacies  and  therefore  in  a 
district  considerably  removed  from  Plymouth.  The 
Pilgrims  did  not  know  at  this  time  the  general  distribu- 
tion of  Indians  in  the  United  States  or  realize  that  the 
powerful  tribes  of  New  England,  rumors  of  whose 
prowess  alarmed  them,  were  after  all  weak,  undeveloped, 
negligible,  compared  to  the  Iroquois  nations,  the  Chero- 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence  115 

kees,  and  the  Creeks.  In  truth,  the  Indians  of  the 
Atlantic  coast  were  weak  in  numbers,  inferior  in  develop- 
ment, backward  in  civilization  compared  to  the  Indian 
tribes  of  the  interior.  The  Pilgrims  stumbled  upon  a 
location  where  the  aborigines  were  singularly  weak, 
disorganized,  and  inferior  in  quality  even  for  the  Indians 
of  the  coast.  Thanks  to  this  fact  and  to  the  great  plague 
of  161 7,  the  question  of  defense  was  simplified. 

Mere  protection  however  would  scarcely  suffice.  The 
Pilgrims  saw  at  once  that  friendly  relations  with  the 
Indians  alone  could  create  that  profitable  and  con- 
tinuous trade  upon  which  such  expectations  had  been 
built.  Reasons  of  conscience  also  operated  powerfully. 
They  felt,  as  few  Europeans  did,  the  necessity  of  treating 
the  Indian  in  accordance  with  the  same  ethical  standard 
which  they  applied  to  each  other.  They  attempted  a 
scrupulous  honesty  and  fairness  which  certainly  exceeded 
the  boasted  ethics  of  Roger  Williams  and  William  Penn, 
both  of  whom  in  conspicuous  instances  over-reached  the 
Indians  in  ways  which  most  of  us  today  would  scarcely 
consider  good  business  ethics.  The  Pilgrims  even  went 
so  far  as  to  hunt  out  and  reimburse,  the  owner  of  a  kettle 
of  corn,  which  they  took  on  one  of  their  first  expeditions 
along  Cape  Cod. 

The  Indian  occupancy  of  Plymouth  it  was  not  neces- 
sary for  them  to  extinguish  by  purchase  or  payments. 
Squanto  was  the  only  survivor  and  he  lived  with  them 
until  his  death,  well  satisfied  with  the  situation.  Nor  so 
far  as  we  know  did  the  other  Indians  subsequently  raise 
claims.  Many  years  later  the  extension  of  Plymouth 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  original  Patuxet  occupancy  did 
produce  friction  with  Philip.  The  theoretical  question  of 
the  justification  of  depriving  the  Indians  permanently  of 


n6  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

their  land  caused  the  Pilgrims  some  considerable  thought, 
but  they  answered  it  as  nearly  all  Europeans  have.  They 
saw  how  slight  was  the  attachment  of  the  Indian  to  any 
particular  piece  of  land;  they  sensed  his  lack  of  the  con- 
ception of  ownership;  they  realized  that  in  the  strictest 
sense  no  Indian  ever  used  the  land  or  developed  its 
possibilities.  They  concluded  that  God  had  not  brought 
them  there  without  purpose,  and  that  the  conversion  of 
the  Indians  would  be  more  than  ample  compensation  for 
the  cession  to  them  of  a  part  of  a  domain  too  vast  for  the 
Indians  to  occupy.  As  Cushman  wrote,  the  Indians  "do 
but  run  over  the  grass  as  do  also  the  foxes  and  wild 
beasts.  They  are  not  industrious,  neither  have  they  art, 
science,  skill  or  faculty  to  use  either  the  land  or  the  com- 
modities of  it."  1 

The  treaty,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  made  with  Massa- 
soit  in  March,  162 1,  was  a  simple  reciprocal  agreement  of 
mutual  aid  and  friendship.  His  people  were  not  to  hurt 
the  Pilgrims  nor  would  they  injure  his  tribe.  If  any 
made  war  upon  him  unjustly  (the  Pilgrims  were  careful 
to  specify  the  injustice  of  the  war)  they  would  help  him. 
"If  any  did  war  against  us"  (and  in  this  case  Winslow 
left  out  unjustly)  "he  should  aid  us."  They  would  each 
leave  their  arms  behind  when  they  approached  the 
other's  settlements.  Thefts  of  tools  or  of  food  should  be 
promptly  restored  and  compensated.  Offenders  on  either 
side  were  to  be  delivered  up  and  they  promised  him  that 
King  James  would  esteem  him  as  a  friend  and  ally,  all  of 
which  seemed  to  impress  Massasoit.    In  the  following 

1 R.  Cfushman].  Reasons  and  Considerations  touching  the  Law- 
fulness of  Removing  out  of  England  into  the  Parts  of  America  (1622). 
See  also,  "General  Considerations  for  Planting  New  England"  in 
Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  275-276. 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence  117 

June  or  July,  Winslow,  Hopkins,  and  Squanto  were  sent 
on  an  embassy  to  Massasoit,  partly  as  a  visit  of  friendship 
to  confirm  and  strengthen  the  agreement  of  March, 
partly  because  the  Pilgrims  were  exceedingly  anxious  to 
see  for  themselves  the  size,  location,  and  condition  of 
Massasoit's  tribe  and  of  the  country  beyond  Plymouth. 
Presents  for  the  "  Imperial  Goveror,"  as  Cushman 
called  him,  they  carried, — a  trooper's  red  cotton  coat 
which  they  trimmed  with  lace,  a  copper  chain  and  some 
other  small  things.  This  expedition  to  visit  an  unknown 
and  questionable  friend  required  perhaps  more  courage 
on  the  part  of  these  men,  who  were  not  so  many  years 
before  simple  farmers  and  artisans,  than  we  are  inclined 
to  credit. 

Friendly  treatment  they  everywhere  met.  Indeed  the 
courtesy  of  the  Indians  was  embarrassing.  Some  insisted 
upon  carrying  them  across  brooks,  were  anxious  to  carry 
their  guns,  accouterments,  clothing,  and  the  like,  which 
the  Pilgrims  were  afraid  to  entrust  to  them  for  fear  they 
should  carry  them  too  far.  After  Massasoit  had  been 
informed  of  their  coming  and  had  returned  to  his  chief 
abode,  he  welcomed  them  after  the  Indian  ceremony,  re- 
ceived the  message,  put  on  the  coat  and  chain,  and  was 
exceedingly  pleased  in  his  simple  way  at  the  treatment. 
He  then  made  a  speech,  of  which  Winslow  tells  us  some- 
thing, much  of  which  seemed  to  consist  of  the  statement 
that  he  was  chief  of  such  and  such  a  place.  Was  not  the 
town  and  the  people  his?  Whereupon  the  whole  assem- 
bly answered  in  unison  that  that  was  true,  they  were  his. 
Thus  he  continued  through  the  list  of  places  of  which  he 
owned  authority,  and  he  repeated  this  series  of  state- 
ments some  thirty  or  forty  times,  so  that  Winslow  re- 
marks, "As  it  was  delightful,  it  was  tedious  unto  us." 


n8  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

They  then  smoked  together  and  Massasoit  wondered  that 
King  James  should  be  able  to  live  without  a  wife,  the 
poor  queen  having  died  the  year  previous.  It  grew  late, 
the  hungry  Pilgrims  longed  for  a  substantial  evening  meal 
after  their  day's  tramping  and  the  long  ceremony  and 
speeches,  but  Massasoit  offered  them  nothing,  the  reason, 
as  they  subsequently  learned,  being  that  there  was 
nothing  in  the  village  to  eat.  He  offered  them  however  a 
share  of  his  bed,  a  sort  of  framework  about  a  foot  ele- 
vated from  the  ground,  upon  which  boards  had  been 
laid,  with  a  mat  of  rushes  upon  them.  He  and  his  wife 
disposed  themselves  at  one  end  and  offered  the  Pilgrims 
the  other.  Two  more  Indians  presently  came  and 
squeezed  upon  the  framework,  "so  that  we  were  worse 
weary  of  our  lodging  than  of  our  journey." 

Apparently  no  breakfast  was  served.  At  length,  about 
one  o'clock,  Massasoit  appeared  with  two  fish  he  had 
shot  in  the  stream  with  arrows.  These  were  boiled  and 
served,  but,  inasmuch  as  forty  Indians  beside  the  Pil- 
grims partook  of  this  bountiful  feast,  their  hunger  was 
scarce  assuaged.  Massasoit,  who  seems  to  have  enjoyed 
his  own  entertainment,  was  importunate  and  urged  the 
Pilgrims  to  remain  several  days.  But  they  determined  to 
return  to  Plymouth,  for  the  hardness  and  straightness  of 
Massasoit's  bed,  the  yelling  and  howling  of  the  savages, 
the  lice,  fleas,  and  mosquitoes,  made  them  doubt  their 
ability  to  sleep  while  they  remained.  They  were  already 
so  weak  from  lack  of  food  and  sleep,  that  they  were 
afraid  if  they  tarried  longer,  they  would  not  have  strength 
to  reach  Plymouth.  They  thus  took  their  leave,  to 
Massasoit's  grief  and  surprise,  and  some  miles  away  were 
entertained  by  other  Indians  with  fish,  a  handful  of  meal, 
and  some  tobacco.    At  length,  that  night,  they  reached  a 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defense  119 

river,  where,  despairing  of  anything  to  eat,  they  sent 
Hobomok  ahead  to  beg  Bradford  to  send  out  food  to 
meet  them.  The  Indians  with  them,  however,  caught  a 
goodly  store  of  fish  that  night,  so  that  they  had  now 
plenty  to  eat,  and  thus,  a  day  or  two  later,  came  back  to 
Plymouth  safe,  but  wet,  weary,  and  footsore.  This 
experience  has  been  told  at  greater  length  partly  because 
Winslow's  account  of  it  is  so  full,  and  partly  because  it  is 
entirely  typical  of  the  Pilgrims'  many  experiences  with 
these  Indians. 

In  August,  162 1,  a  tale  was  brought  to  Plymouth 
that  one  Corbitant,  one  of  Massasoit's  sub-chiefs,  was 
plotting  against  him  with  the  Narragansetts.  Hobomok 
and  Squanto  were  sent  to  find  out  the  truth  and  word 
was  presently  brought  back,  that  they  had  been  captured 
by  Corbitant,  who  intended  to  kill  them  both,  for,  as  he 
told  the  Indians,  if  Squanto  were  dead,  "the  English 
had  lost  their  tongue."  Hobomok,  who  brought  the 
word,  told  of  breaking  away  from  the  circle  of  Indians 
and  of  seeing  Squanto  in  their  hands  with  Corbitant 
holding  a  knife  to  his  heart.  Upon  this  news  the  Pil- 
grims without  hesitation  determined  to  save  Squanto 
if  they  might,  and  to  avenge  him  if  he  were  dead.  They 
well  realized  that  it  would  never  do  to  allow  the  Indians 
to  suppose  for  a  moment  that  they  were  intimidated. 
They  thus  marched,  ten  men  in  all,  on  a  rainy  day,  and, 
reaching  Corbitant's  little  town,  surrounded  his  house. 
The  savages  were  exceedingly  frightened  and  rushed 
around  much  distraught.  Corbitant  however  was  not 
there,  Squanto  was  safe;  and,  taking  him  with  them, 
they  fired  a  couple  of  volleys  to  terrify  the  inhabitants 
and  returned  to  Plymouth.  In  September,  another 
voyage  of  exploration  and  intimidation  was  undertaken 


120  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

along  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  Massachusetts  Indians 
whom  they  found  demoralized  and  frightened.  With 
some  little  difficulty,  they  reassured  them  and  succeeded 
in  exchanging  a  number  of  trinkets  for  a  good  many 
score  of  beaver  skins.  Squanto,  Indian-like,  wished  to 
steal  the  clothes  from  the  Indians'  backs,  a  proposal 
indignantly  rejected  by  Standish.  But  the  Indians  did 
not  hesitate  to  sell  their  clothes,  and  the  Pilgrims  owned 
that  the  women,  who  decorated  their  bare  bodies  with 
twigs  and  leaves,  were  really  more  modest  in  their  car- 
riage than  a  good  many  Englishwomen  they  had  known. 
Thus  passed  without  danger  or  other  incident  the  year 
1621. 

Early  in  1622  a  rattlesnake  skin  stuffed  with  arrows 
was  brought  into  Plymouth  by  a  messenger  from  Canoni- 
cus,  chief  of  the  Narragansetts,  which  Squanto  ex- 
plained was  a  challenge  to  war.  After  some  debate, 
Bradford  stuffed  the  skin  with  powder  and  bullets  and 
sent  it  back  by  the  messenger.  The  Indians  seem  to 
have  been  afraid  of  it  and  to  have  passed  it  around  from 
hand  to  hand,  until  it  was  finally  returned  to  Plymouth 
unbroken.  Nothing  came  of  it,  but  the  Pilgrims  felt  it 
wise  to  erect  pallisades  around  the  little  village.  They 
began  at  the  harbor  and  built  a  good  sized  stockade 
of  dressed  timber  along  the  north  side  of  the  town,  and 
thence  along  the  north  side  of  Fort  Hill  to  the  town 
brook,  a  distance  in  all  of  half  a  mile.  The  town  brook 
ran  through  a  rather  steep  and  deep  ravine  and  itself 
afforded  natural  protection  on  one  side.  There  were  in 
the  pallisade  four  flanking  bastions  from  which  musket 
fire  could  rake  the  whole  front.  In  these  were  the  gates. 
Standish  also  arranged  the  fifty  men  now  at  Plymouth 
into  four  companies,  each  with  an  officer,  put  them 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence  12 1 

regularly  through  certain  evolutions,  taught  them  to 
volley  fire,  and  gave  such  additional  instruction  as  there 
was  time  for.  One  squad  was  detailed  as  a  fire  battalion 
to  put  out  fires  should  the  Indians  attempt  that  method 
of  attack.  During  the  spring  further  alarms  of  the 
hostility  of  Massasoit  and  of  the  Massachusetts  Con- 
federacy made  them  rather  thankful  for  their  stockade, 
even  though  the  disquieting  rumors  proved  to  be  un- 
founded. 

In  June  they  began  building  a  fort,  which  they  did 
not  however  succeed  in  finishing,  perhaps  because  the 
remainder  of  the  year  passed  quietly  and  uneventfully, 
except  for  the  death  of  Squanto  from  sickness  on  an 
expedition  to  collect  grain.  His  death  proved  a  real 
loss  despite  his  faults,  of  which  they  had  for  some  time 
been  aware.  He  would  go  to  an  Indian  and  tell  him 
that  the  Pilgrims  intended  to  kill  him  but  that  he  could 
control  the  Pilgrims,  and,  if  sufficiently  propitiated, 
would  save  the  man's  life.  He  also  told  them  that  the 
Pilgrims  kept  the  plague  buried  in  the  storehouse,  which 
at  their  pleasure  they  might  loose  upon  the  Indians  and 
destroy  them.  No  doubt  a  certain  profit  accrued  to 
him  from  these  transactions  and  perhaps  a  certain  fric- 
tion between  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Indians  resulted,  but 
unquestionably  his  assistance  more  than  outweighed 
these  disadvantages.1 

In  1623  the  only  danger  which  the  Pilgrims  ever  ex- 
perienced occurred.  A  conspiracy,  if  we  may  dignify 
it  by  so  large  a  name,  seems  to  have  been  hatched  be- 
tween a  number  of  the  petty  chiefs  of  the  district  and 
was  intended  to  unite  the  Indians  between  Boston  and 

1  What  is  known  about  Squanto  had  been  brought  together  by 
C.  F.  Adams  in  Three  Episodes  of  Massachusetts  History,  23-44. 


122  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Narragansett  Bay.  The  object  was  nothing  short  of  the 
extermination  of  all  the  English,  and  as  to  the  reality 
of  the  conspiracy  there  is  perhaps  no  doubt.  Whether 
the  Indians  could  have  executed  it  may  well  be  queried. 
The  cause  of  the  trouble  lay  in  the  unfair  treatment  of 
the  Indians  by  Weston's  men  at  Weymouth.  They  stole 
food  and  skins  from  them,  put  them  in  the  stocks, 
whipped  them, — whipping  the  Indians  always  deemed 
a  most  degrading  and  extreme  punishment.  This  in 
the  days  of  their  plenty  and  arrogance.  As  the  winter 
had  progressed  and  the  food  had  become  scarce,  they 
had  been  glad  to  work  for  the  Indians,  carrying  water 
and  wood,  tasks  considered  by  the  Indians  unworthy 
of  a  man  and  fit  only  for  women.  This  led  the  fiercer 
to  despise  them,  so  that  they  would  come  boldly  into 
the  camp,  take  their  food  out  of  the  pot,  and  eat  it  be- 
fore their  faces.  They  stole  the  Englishmen's  clothes, 
sometimes  coming  at  night  and  snatching  the  blankets 
off  of  them,  leaving  them  shivering  on  the  ground.  Such 
ill  treatment  of  the  Indians  on  the  one  hand,  and  such 
craven  cowardice  on  the  other  provided  the  fuel  from 
which  this  plot  sprang. 

Knowledge  of  it  came  to  the  Pilgrims  from  Massasoit. 
Standish  indeed  had  noticed  the  insolence  of  the  Indians 
as  early  as  March,  1623,  when  they  expected  no  par- 
ticular treachery  and  certainly  no  concerted  action. 
A  chief  named  Wituwamat,  one  of  the  few  remaining 
Massachusetts  Indians  and  a  "notable  insulting  villain,, 
according  to  Winslow,  boasted  before  Standish  of  his 
own  valor,  of  the  number  of  English  and  French  he  had 
slain,  and  of  their  weakness,  because  "as  he  said,  they 
died  crying  making  sour  faces  more  like  children  than 
men."    He  then  presented  a  dagger  to  a  chief  in  Stan- 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence  123 

dish's  presence,  and  delivered  a  long  speech  most  of  which 
Standish  did  not  understand.  His  behavior  however 
made  its  substance  quite  clear.  Another  savage  seems 
to  have  been  affected  by  this  display  and  undertook  to 
kill  Standish  that  night,  a  fact  the  latter  seems  to  have 
learned.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  keep  awake  and 
Standish  accordingly  walked  all  night  to  and  fro  in 
front  of  the  fire,  the  Indian  asking  continually  why  he 
did  not  sleep  and  Standish  as  regularly  replying  that 
he  knew  not  why.  Such  incidents  however  the  Pilgrims 
judged  it  wise  not  to  deem  serious. 

The  middle  of  the  month  of  March  word  was  brought 
to  Plymouth  that  Massasoit  was  dangerously  ill  and 
Bradford  detailed  Winslow  with  one  John  Hampden, 
"  Gentleman  of  London,"  who  was  wintering  at  Plym- 
outh, to  make  a  visit  of  condolence  and  sympathy.1 
The  news  reached  them  on  their  journey  that  Massasoit 
was  already  dead,  and  when  the}'  reached  his  village 
they  learned  that  he  was  so  ill  that  he  was  not  expected 
to  live.  The  wigwam  was  crammed  with  people,  in  the 
midst  of  which  were  the  medicine  men  making  a  tre- 
mendous noise,  while  six  or  eight  women  were  rubbing 
Massasoit  diligently  "to  keep  the  heat  in  him."  With 
some  ado  Winslow  succeeded  in  putting  an  end  to  this 
treatment  and  managed  to  administer  some  of  the 
simple  but  powerful  drugs  which  he  had  brought  with 

^pon  the  identification  of  this  "gentleman"  with  the  John 
Hampden,  one  Joseph  Crowell,  a  shopkeeper  at  Plymouth,  based 
a  historical  drama  in  five  acts,  written  during  the  Revolution. 
Pocahontas  appears  as  the  daughter  of  Massasoit  and  with  her 
Hampden  falls  in  love.  The  Epilogue  is  delivered  by  Elder  Brews- 
ter who  prophetically  sees  new  States  arise  and  George  Washington 
at  their  head  "a  shining  Chief."  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc,  2nd 
Series,  III,  431,  note. 


124  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

him.  Massasoit  seems  to  have  been  suffering  largely 
from  acute  indigestion  and  auto-intoxication,  induced 
by  too  liberal  eating.  He  was  none  the  less  suffering 
great  pain  and  would  perhaps  have  died  if  Winslow's 
simple  ministrations  had  not  been  effective.  The  prompt- 
itude of  his  recovery  produced  a  marvelous  impression 
of  the  Pilgrims'  power  and  skill  upon  Massasoit  and 
upon  his  tribe  and  led  him  to  reveal  to  Hobomok,  be- 
fore the  Pilgrims  left,  the  expected  conspiracy. 

On  the  twenty-third  of  March,  the  annual  "court 
day,"  the  Pilgrims  considered  the  course  to  be  taken 
to  thwart  it  and  finally  delegated  authority  to  Bradford, 
Allerton,  and  Standish  to  deal  with  it  as  they  thought 
best.  Standish  was  deputed  eventually  to  rescue  the 
Weymouth  colony.  He  took  with  him  eight  men,  de- 
clining a  larger  company  on  the  score  that  more  would 
arouse  suspicion  and  precipitate  the  execution  of  the 
conspiracy  before  he  could  capture  the  leaders  or  warn 
Weston's  men.  The  Pilgrims  left  behind  set  to  work 
to  complete  the  unfinished  fort.  Toward  the  end  of 
March  then  Standish  appeared  at  WTeymouth,  found  the 
settlement  unguarded,  and  broke  the  news  to  them  of 
their  danger.  The  Indians  soon  learned  of  his  arrival  and 
came  in  to  see  him.  One  bold  fellow  told  Hobomok  that 
he  knew  Standish  had  come  to  kill  him  and  the  other 
Indians.  "  Tell  him  we  know  it,  but  fear  him  not,  neither 
will  we  shun  him,  but  let  him  begin  when  he  dare;  he 
shall  not  take  us  unawares."  Several  of  them  went  so 
far  as  to  sharpen  their  knives  before  him  and  to  use 
insulting  gestures  and  speeches.  The  chief,  who  had 
already  dared  Standish  on  a  previous  occasion,  was 
present  and  bragged  of  the  excellence  of  his  knife.  He 
said  he  had  a  better  at  home  with  which  he  had  killed 


Standish  and  the  Problem  of  Defence  125 

both  French  and  English.  By  and  by  it  should  eat 
and  not  speak.  The  ring  leader,  who  was  a  tall,  stalwart 
Indian,  told  Standish  that,  though  he  was  a  great  cap- 
tain, he  was  none  the  less  a  little  man,  while  he,  on  the 
contrary,  though  not  a  chief,  was  a  man  of  great  strength 
and  courage.  Standish  seems  with  great  difficulty  to 
have  retained  his  temper  and  bided  his  time. 

The  next  day  he  managed  to  draw  these  two,  with 
two  of  their  allies  into  a  house,  and,  with  three  of  his 
own  men,  went  in  after  them  and  locked  the  door.  He 
himself  then  grappled  with  the  tall  Indian,  who  had 
jested  at  his  small  stature,  and  presently  killed  him  with 
his  own  knife.  The  other  Indians  were  eventually  dis- 
patched, though  after  a  very  bloody  battle,  in  which 
they  received  so  many  wounds  that  the  Pilgrims  won- 
dered they  could  last  so  long.  Hobomok,  who  stood 
by  as  a  spectator,  observed  when  it  was  over:  "yesterday 
Pecksuot  bragging  of  his  own  strength  and  stature,  said, 
'Though  you  were  a  great  captain,  yet  you  were  but  a 
little  man.'  But  today  I  see  you  are  big  enough  to  lay 
him  on  the  ground."  The  ringleaders  being  dead,  the 
Pilgrims  now  sought  to  capture  or  kill  as  many  more  as 
possible.  One  young  Indian  Standish  hanged  and  at  least 
two  or  three  others  were  killed.  The  next  day  Standish 
and  his  men  saw  a  file  of  Indians  in  the  distance,  and  a 
skirmish  took  place,  after  which  the  Indians  fled.  This 
was  the  end  of  the  conspiracy,  the  other  chiefs  being 
too  frightened  to  move.  The  majority  of  Weston's 
men  Standish  now  provisioned  and  sent  off  to  England 
in  the  Swan.  He  himself  returned  to  Plymouth  in 
safety  and  brought  with  him  the  head  of  Wituwamat, 
which  was  long  exposed  on  a  spike  on  top  of  the  fort. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  if  Bradford  was  the  great 


126  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

figure  in  civil  affairs,  Standish  was  the  dominant  in- 
fluence in  dealings  with  the  Indians.  Winslow  to  be  sure 
did  much,  but  Standish  obtained  a  better  knowledge  of 
the  Indian  dialects  and  was  in  addition  a  good  deal  more 
active  and  resourceful  man.  The  romanticists  and  poets 
have  dealt  hardly  with  him,  almost  to  the  undoing  of  his 
place  in  history.1  He  was  perhaps  no  very  dramatic  or 
romantic  figure,  for  he  was  short,  rather  plump  and 
sturdy,  and  a  little  too  old  for  poetic  purposes.  He  was 
admirably  well  placed  however  in  the  colony,  and  the 
more  one  studies  Pilgrim  annals  the  larger  he  bulks,  the 
greater  his  ability  seems  and  the  more  important  his 
services.  His  high  personal  courage,  his  resourcefulness, 
his  great  physical  endurance,  his  fiery  temper,  all  made 
him  the  leader  needed  to  complement  the  more  peaceful 
and  contemplative  Bradford. 

1  In  justice  to  Standish  and  his  descendants  and  without  dis- 
paragement to  Alden  and  his,  it  should  be  said  that  the  stories 
commonly  connected  with  them  are  based  upon  tradition  rather 
than  upon  evidence  and  have  been  rejected  as  unfounded  by  all 
serious  students  of  Pilgrim  history,  including  the  historian  of  the 
Alden  family.  Augustus  E.  Alden,  in  Pilgrim  Alden,  Boston,  1902, 
has  brought  together  the  available  material  and  has  skilfully 
separated  the  evidence  from  tradition.  He  cannot  trace  the  in- 
cident of  Priscilla,  John  Alden,  and  the  proposal  of  marriage  in 
Standish's  name,  upon  which  Longfellow's  poem  is  based,  beyond 
Timothy  Alden's  Collection  of  American  Epitaphs  and  Inscriptions, 
published  in  181 2-14.  See  the  uncompromising  remarks  of 
Goodwin  in  his  Pilgrim  Republic,  566. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  TARES   IN  THE  NEW  ENGLISH  CANAAN 

The  Pilgrims  had  been  anxious  to  settle  far  enough 
away  from  existing  or  prospective  colonies  to  avoid  the 
constant  scrutiny  of  prying  eyes  and  pricking  ears.  Their 
liberty  to  practice  a  form  of  Church  Government,  not 
regarded  with  favor  either  in  England  or  in  Holland,  or 
even  by  their  own  business  associates,  had  been  a 
significant  motive  or  emigration  and  now  made  essential 
at  least  circumspection,  forbearance,  and  hospitality  in 
dealing  with  all  strangers  and  visitors.  If  possible  they 
preferred  to  avoid  inspection,  but  they  dared  not  treat 
visitors  so  as  to  suggest  that  there  was  anything  to 
conceal.  They  felt  that  they  must  be  all  things  to  all 
men,  though  they  hardly  anticipated  that  the  first  tq< 
give  them  real  concern  would  be  the  very  man  who  had 
been  instrumental  in  financing  the  enterprise,  Weston 
himself.  During  the  first  year  there  seem  to  have  been 
no  visitors  at  Plymouth  and  no  danger  of  reports  un- 
favorable to  them  other  than  those  told  by  the  crews  of 
the  Mayflower  and  the  Fortune.  In  the  second  year,  as 
already  related,  there  came  a  colony,  financed  by  Weston 
himself,  sixty  "lusty"  men  but  an  "unruly  company," 
lacking  in  discipline,  in  energy,  in  practical  ability,  and 
in  good  sense,  who  were  saved  from  a  very  real  tragedy  in 
1623  by  the  Pilgrims.  Presently,  after  his  men  were  well 
on  their  way  back  to  England,  appeared  Weston,  who 
came  back  from  England  in  a  fishing  ship  disguised  as  a 
blacksmith.     He  sought  to  borrow  from  the  Pilgrims 

127 


128  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

enough  to  fit  himself  out  once  more  in  an  endeavor  to 
recoup  his  losses,  and  the  leaders  finally  allowed  him  one 
hundred  beaver  skins,  which  they  lent  him  secretly,  for 
fear  that  the  majority  would  have  prevented  the  loan  had 
they  known  of  it.  With  this,  he  fitted  out  a  small  ship 
and  began  once  more  to  trade,  but  promptly  repaid  them 
in  ill  coin  by  divulging  to  some  unfriendly  to  them  the 
fact,  that,  in  letting  him  have  the  beaver  secretly,  they 
had  given  him  a  great  handle  against  them,  with  which 
at  any  time  he  might  set  the  colony  by  the  ears.  He 
seems  also  to  have  sent  back  to  England,  in  one  way  or 
another,  unfavorable  and  slanderous  reports,  which  did 
not  tend  to  increase  the  harmony  among  the  Adven- 
turers. 

In  June,  1623,  came  the  first  sign  of  official  interference 
which  the  Pilgrims  had  had.  A  Captain  West  appeared 
at  Plymouth  with  a  commission  as  Admiral  of  New  Eng- 
land from  the  Council  of  New  England,  with  jurisdiction 
over  all  fishing  and  trading  in  those  waters.  The  impulse 
which  led  to  his  appointment  was  thrifty.  A  very  large 
fleet  of  fishing  vessels  visited  the  Grand  Banks  and  the 
coast  of  Maine  from  England,  France,  and  Holland  every 
year,  and  it  was  thought  that  West  might  exact  a  con- 
siderable sum  of  each  for  a  license  to  fish  and  trade. 
These  expectations  failed  to  materialize,  for  the  fishermen 
with  great  unanimity  declined  to  pay  a  farthing,  and  were 
too  numerous  and  too  resolute  for  one  man  with  a  small 
ship  to  coerce.  In  September,  1623,  arrived  Robert 
Gorges  with  a  colony,  intending  to  begin  a  plantation  at 
Weymouth,  already  deserted  by  Weston.  He  brought  a 
commission  as  Governor  of  New  England,  with  a  council 
composed  of  West,  the  Admiral,  the  Governor  of  Plym- 
outh,  and  one  or  two  other  men.     The  commission 


The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan         129 

contained  broad  powers  and  indefinite  phrases,  but  the 
most  done  toward  executing  it  seems  to  have  been  the 
presentation  of  a  copy  to  Bradford.  The  Pilgrims  re- 
ceived him  with  extreme  courtesy  and  hospitality.  One 
purpose  of  his  coming,  he  told  them,  was  to  arrest 
Weston  for  the  disorderly  conduct  of  his  colony  and  for 
his  subsequent  behavior.  When  presently  Weston  ap- 
peared, he  demanded  an  answer  to  the  charges,  which 
Weston  minimized  as  much  as  possible.  Bradford  and 
the  leaders  were  somewhat  in  doubt  whether  to  allow 
Gorges  to  arrest  Weston  or  not.  To  assist  him  was  to 
recognize  his  commission  as  superior  to  their  patent,  a 
fact  they  were  not  anxious  to  admit  openly  or  tacitly. 
To  oppose  him  was  dangerous.  To  assist  Weston  was  to 
rescue  an  ungrateful  rascal.  Eventually  they  did  in  one 
way  or  another  diplomatically  prevent  the  arrest  of 
Weston,  for  all  of  which  Weston  gave  them  small  thanks, 
claiming  that,  though  they  were  but  young  justices,  yet 
they  were  good  beggars. 

Georges  sailed  away  and  considerably  later  sent  a 
warrant  to  Plymouth  for  the  arrest  of  Weston,  raising 
thus  the  same  question  of  the  validity  of  his  authority. 
Bradford,  after  some  consideration,  took  exception  to 
the  warrant  as  "not  legal  nor  sufficient, "  and  indicated 
what  eventually  turned  out  to  be  vastly  more  to  the 
point,  that  the  arrest  of  Weston  at  this  time  would 
throw  his  men  on  Gorges'  hands  and  cost  him  considera- 
ble money  and  trouble.  Gorges  however  seems  to  have 
realized  the  legal  issue,  which  caused  the  Pilgrims  to 
hesitate,  and  sent  an  exceedingly  formal  warrant,  signed 
and  sealed,  with  strict  orders  to  execute  it  at  their  peril. 
They  judged  it  best  to  offer  no  further  opposition,  and 
accordingly  executed  it,  only  to  prove  the  truth  of  their 


130  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

former  contention,  that  Gorges  had  created  more 
difficulties  than  he  had  solved.  They  were  soon  relieved 
however  of  real  apprehensions  for  their  independence, 
because  Gorges  concluded  after  a  little  experience  that 
the  country  did  not  answer  his  expectations.  He  re- 
turned to  England  and  the  people  he  had  brought  with 
him  for  the  most  part  either  went  back  to  England  or  to 
Virginia.  One,  a  Mr.  Morrell,  a  minister,  came  to 
Plymouth  and  stayed  there  for  about  a  year,  quietly  and 
circumspectly.  Just  before  he  left,  he  confided  to  Brad- 
ford that  a  right  of  superintendence  over  the  Churches 
of  New  England  had  been  conferred  upon  him  by  the 
Council,  which  he  had  judged  it  wise  not  to  use.  Thus 
did  their  hospitable  conduct  deliver  them  from  their 
first  peril. 

Meanwhile  there  had  arrived  in  July,  1623,  on  the 
Anne,  several  colonists,  who  had  paid  their  own  expenses, 
among  whom  were  two  men  who  subsequently  played 
considerable  part  in  New  England  annals.  The  leader  of 
these  "particulars"  was  John  Oldham,  who  became 
later  a  man  of  some  importance  at  Boston,  who  devel- 
oped an  extensive  trade  with  the  Indians  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Connecticut,  and  whose  murder  in  1636  led  by  a 
pretty  definite  chain  of  causation  to  the  fierce  Pequot 
war.  Another  was  Roger  Conant  who  became  subse- 
quently the  founder  of  Salem.  They  were  no  sooner  on 
shore  than  they  began  to  stir  up  trouble  among  the  less 
capable  in  the  colony  and  to  sow  disagreement  among 
those  who  were  not  members  of  the  Pilgrim  Church. 
The  next  spring  there  landed  from  the  Charity,  one 
Master  John  Lyford,  with  his  wife  and  four  children. 
He  was  a  Puritan*  minister,  had  held  a  benefice  in  the 
Established  Church,  had  been  ordained  by  a  bishop,  and 


The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan         131 

was  now  sent  out  by  the  Adventurers  with  the  hope  that 
they  might  thus  provide  the  Pilgrims  with  more  suitable 
religious  instruction  than  Brewster's.  Some  students  of 
Pilgrim  history  have  seen  in  his  coming  evidence  of  a 
deep  laid  conspiracy  to  destroy  the  colony.  There  is  no 
direct  evidence  of  any  such  intention,  although  it  is 
clear  enough  that  after  he  had  been  in  Plymouth  a  little 
while,  he  began  an  intrigue  with  Oldham,  Conant, 
Billington,  and  other  discontented  spirits,  to  change 
conditions  somewhat  more  to  their  own  liking. 

He  was  at  first  however  exceedingly  suave  and  deferen- 
tial, and  so  admired  the  dispositions  the  Pilgrims  had 
made,  so  lauded  their  diligence  and  industry,  that  they 
concluded  him  to  be  a  man  of  discretion  and  judgment. 
He  went  indeed  so  far  that  Bradford  feels  it  necessary 
to  assure  us  that  many  were  willing  to  witness  to  his 
desire  to  have  kissed  their  hands,  a  sign  of  deference  in 
those  days  due  only  to  royalty  and  feudal  lords.  They 
alloted  him  as  residence  one  of  the  houses  in  the  town, 
made  him  a  considerable  allowance  of  food  from  the 
common  store,  and  invited  him  to  sit  in  the  Governor's 
Council  with  the  Assistants.  When  after  some  little 
time  he  came  forward  voluntarily  and  made  a  profession 
of  faith  which  seemed  acceptable  to  them,  they  received 
him  into  the  Church  very  joyfully,  firm  in  the  belief  that 
his  protestations  of  his  desire  to  abandon  "his  former 
disorderly  walking"  were  sincere.  John  Oldham  also 
came  forward  and  voluntarily  repented  of  his  evil  ways, 
professing  that  the  arrival  of  the  Charity  had  proved  to 
him  the  falsity  of  his  belief,  that  the  Adventurers  in 
England  were  about  to  desert  the  colony,  and  confessing 
that  he  had  written  a  good  deal  to  England  about  them 
which  was  untrue. 


132  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

This  harmony,  however,  lasted  but  a  short  time,  for 
presently  Lyford  and  Oldham  began  to  hold  private 
meetings  of  the  weaker  members,  where  a  good  deal  was 
said  against  the  Government  as  administered  by  Brad- 
ford, and  the  form  and  affairs  of  the  Church.  They  in- 
sinuated that  they  had  between  them  sufficient  influence 
with  the  Adventurers  at  home  to  secure  a  change  in  both 
Government  and  Church.  They  were  observed  to  write 
voluminous  letters  and  to  whisper  and  laugh  with  each 
other  about  them,  so  that  when  the  Charity  finally  sailed 
Bradford  judged  it  expedient  to  leave  with  the  ship, 
towing  the  shallop  behind  in  which  to  return.  The  ship's 
captain  put  into  his  hands,  after  sailing,  the  letters  given 
to  him  by  Lyford  and  Oldham.  They  contained,  as  had 
been  expected,  a  type  of  statement  which  would  certainly 
not  redound  to  the  credit  of  the  Pilgrims  in  England 
and  which,  if  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Privy 
Council,  might  have  led  to  an  investigation  with  dis- 
astrous results.  Copies  were  taken  of  some  of  the  letters, 
the  originals  of  the  more  important  were  kept,  and  copies 
of  these  sent  on.  They  found  among  other  things  that 
one  of  the  pair,  probably  on  the  voyage  over,  had  not 
been  above  purloining  letters  addressed  to  them,  which 
stated  confidential  facts  they  were  very  sorry  to  have 
known. 

When  Bradford  returned  in  the  shallop,  the  plotters 
were  somewhat  dismayed,  but,  hearing  nothing  for  some 
weeks,  recovered  their  boldness.  Bradford  and  the 
leaders  judged  it  best  to  give  them  all  the  opportunity 
they  wished,  for  one  letter  contained  phrases  which  led 
them  to  suppose  that  Lyford  and  Oldham  intended  to 
attempt  something  resembling  a  revolution  in  the  colony. 
To  this  color  was  lent  by  the  conduct  of  Oldham.    When 


The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan         133 

presently  he  was  ordered  by  Standish  to  take  his  turn 
at  the  watch  on  the  pallisades,  he  refused  to  go,  called 
Standish  a  rascal,  and  drew  a  knife.  Bradford  undertook 
to  restore  order,  whereupon  Oldham  "ramped  more  like 
a  furious  beast  than  a  man  and  calld  them  all  treatours 
and  rebells  and  other  such  f  oule  language  as  I  am  ashamed 
to  remember."  They  promptly  confined  him  for  some 
time,  censured  him,  and  let  him  go.  But  when  Lyford 
presently  instituted  on  Sunday  a  religious  meeting  at- 
tended by  the  various  malcontents,  the  Pilgrims  judged 
that  the  time  had  come  to  call  him  to  account.  Bradford 
accordingly  summoned  a  general  court  of  the  colony, 
which  was  naturally  attended  out  of  curiosity  by  every 
soul  in  Plymouth.  Lyford  and  Oldham  were  charged 
with  their  letters  and  intentions  and  stoutly  denied 
everything.  Bradford  then  produced  and  read  some  of 
the  letters,  which  seemed  somewhat  to  confuse  them. 

Oldham  now  played  their  trump  card  and  "caled  upon 
the  people,  saying  My  maisters  wher  is  your  harts?  Now 
shew  your  courage;  you  have  oft  complained  to  me  so 
and  so,  now  is  the  time,  if  you  will  doe  any  thing,  I  will 
stand  by  you."  He  was  of  course  counting  upon  the 
democratic  constitution  of  Plymouth,  where  the  majority 
vote  of  the  people  prevailed,  and  he  evidently  expected 
that  the  majority  would  swing  to  his  side.  Once  assured 
of  a  majority  vote,  his  own  election  as  Governor  would 
have  been  a  simple  matter.  So  would  have  been  the 
appointment  of  Lyford  as  minister  and  any  change  in  the 
laws  displeasing  to  them.  Much  to  their  discomforture 
not  a  man  stood  by  them.  Bradford,  seeing  that  the  > 
victory  was  his,  proceeded  to  make  the  most  of  it,  but 
with  a  restraint  and  moderation  admirable  in  contrast 
with  the  intemperate  language  of  Oldham  and  Lyford. 


134  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

He  acknowledged  calmly  the  opening  of  their  letters, 
but  justified  such  an  exercise  of  authority  on  the  ground 
of  public  necessity.  To  demonstrate  the  truth  of  his 
assertion,  the  extremity  of  the  need,  and  the  justification 
of  strict  dealing  with  Lyford,  he  read  the  various  com- 
plaints which  Lyford  had  made  and  answered  them.  The 
complaints  were  clear  proof  of  Lyford's  guilt,  but  his 
suggestions  for  the  future  conduct  of  the  Adventurers 
were  damning  and  conclusive.  They  must  at  all  odds, 
he  said,  prevent  the  emigration  of  Robinson  and  the  rest 
of  the  Leyden  congregation,  and  in  particular  must  watch 
that  they  were  not  taken  on  board  ship  without  the  Ad- 
venturers' knowledge.  It  would  also  be  an  excellent  idea 
for  the  Adventurers  to  ship  to  Plymouth  enough  people 
to  outvote  the  Pilgrims  in  the  General  Court.  This 
would  be  compassed  easily  enough  by  giving  each  bond 
servant,  whose  passage  they  paid,  an  indenture  for  a  re- 
ceipt of  the  amount  of  the  passage,  thus  making  him  a 
free  man  and  a  citizen,  in  exchange  for  an  assignment 
of  the  covenant  to  the  merchants.  This  would  give  the 
servants  power  to  vote  at  Plymouth  without  depriving 
the  merchants  of  their  services.  A  military  man  should 
also  be  sent,  "for  this  Captain  Standish  looks  like  a  silly 
boy  and  is  in  utter  contempt." 

The  evident  effect  of  the  reading  of  the  letters  was 
such  that  Lyford  felt  it  best  to  say,  that  the  information 
contained  in  them  he  had  received  from  the  members  of 
the  Pilgrim  company  themselves.  They  charged  him 
accordingly  to  produce  his  witnesses.  When  he  gave  the 
names,  they  promptly  asked  the  men  to  testify,  but  they 
denied  that  they  had  ever  said  such  things.  The  victory 
of  Bradford  was  complete.  Not  one  of  the  abetters  of 
Lyford  and  Oldham  stood  the  test.    Indeed  they  seem 


The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan         135 

to  have  come  forward  to  add  further  condemnatory  facts. 
By  vote  of  the  court,  both  men  were  censured  and  ex- 
pelled. Oldham  was  to  leave  at  once,  though  his  wife 
and  family  were  to  be  allowed  to  remain  throughout  the 
winter,  or  until  he  could  make  provision  for  them.  Ly- 
ford  was  to  be  allowed  to  remain  six  months  longer,  with 
intimation  that,  if  he  should  entirely  reform,  the  sentence 
of  expulsion  might  be  revoked.  Thereupon,  after  some 
time  he  made  public  confession  in  Church,  and,  if  Brad- 
ford is  to  be  believed,  wept  copiously  the  while,  reproach- 
ing himself  for  all  manner  of  evil  against  them  and  con- 
fessing "pride,  vainglory,  and  self-love."  Indeed  they 
were  inclined  to  believe  in  the  sincerity  of  his  professions, 
until  a  couple  of  months  later  another  letter  fell  into 
their  hands,  written  subsequent  to  his  conviction,  and 
which  was  meant  to  confirm  to  his  friends  in  England 
the  main  tenor  of  the  previous  letters.  In  particular,  he 
stressed  the  number  of  people  who  were  not  members  of 
the  Pilgrim  Church,  whom  the  Pilgrims  would  not  permit 
to  become  members,  and  whom  he  declared  to  be  there- 
fore without  the  means  of  salvation.  There  was,  he 
averred,  no  minister  at  Plymouth  at  all.  He  had  nothing 
much  to  say  when  accused  with  this  epistle,  and  they 
washed  their  hands  of  him.  They  fully  intended  to  ex- 
pel him  as  soon  as  the  winter  was  over,  satisfied  with 
their  victory  and  with  the  anxiety  of  most  of  his  assistants 
to  humble  themselves  before  the  Governor  and  their 
willingness  to  join  the  Church.  It  seemed  as  if  the  in- 
cident had  served  to  unify  the  little  colony  and  to  produce 
a  greater  degree  of  cooperation  between  them  than  had 
ever  existed  before. 

In  the  spring  of  1625,  Oldham  returned  without  per- 
mission, apparently  in  the  hope  of  finding  support  once 


136  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

more.  As  usual  their  calm,  diplomatic  behavior  was  too 
much  for  his  fiery  passion  to  endure,  and  he  presently- 
put  himself  thoroughly  in  the  wrong  by  abusing  them 
with  strong  language  and  insulting  gestures.  They  lost 
no  time  with  him,  arrested  him  promptly,  and  put  him 
in  seclusion  for  a  while.  They  then  arranged  to  send 
him  to  the  harbor  side  through  a  double  file  of  musketeers, 
each  of  whom  in  Indian  fashion  was  to  hit  him  a  blow 
with  the  musket  end  as  he  went  by.  While  this  scene 
was  being  enacted,  a  ship  came  in  from  England  bearing 
Winslow  with  the  news  that  the  worst  was  only  too  true 
about  both  Oldham  and  Lyford.  They  hesitated  there- 
fore no  longer  about  expelling  him,  the  less  because  his 
wife  had  already  confessed  to  some  of  them,  that  he  had 
been  guilty  on  more  than  one  occasion  of  licentious  con- 
duct, which  the  Pilgrims  deemed  unbecoming  in  any  one, 
much  less  a  minister. 

To  her  confessions  was  added  the  information  Winslow 
brought  of  the  great  scene  in  the  Merchant  Adventurers' 
Council  in  England.  Winslow  had  been  much  berated 
for  having  accused  Lyford  and  a  meeting  had  been  called 
to  hear  the  case  and  to  decide  upon  the  accusation  which 
Lyford's  friends  proposed  to  bring  against  Winslow. 
Meantime  the  latter  somehow  procured  knowledge  of 
Lyford's  past,  and  arranged  with  two  witnesses  to  be 
present  at  the  meeting.  When  therefore  the  Adventurers 
had  assembled  in  great  numbers  to  try  this  exciting  scan- 
dal, when  the  moderators  had  been  chosen  and  the  case 
was  well  under  way,  Winslow  brought  forward  his  wit- 
nesses and  proved  an  astonishing  and  shocking  case, 
wherein  Lyford  had  ruined  a  girl  while  minister  of  a 
Puritan  congregation  in  Ireland.  The  case  was,  indeed, 
if  the  facts  were  as  Bradford  reports,  shocking,  and  the 


The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan         137 

effect  upon  the  meeting  was  all  that  the  Pilgrims  could 
have  asked.  Their  charges  against  Lyford  were  so  in- 
finitely less  grave  than  this  and  so  entirely  what  might 
be  expected  of  a  man  sufficiently  depraved  to  commit 
this  other  crime,  that  Lyford's  own  friends  were  com- 
pelled to  censure  him.  He  now  left  Plymouth  and  went 
further  north,  lived  for  a  while  at  Salem,  emigrated 
eventually  to  Virginia,  and  there  died.  And  so,  piously 
and  triumphantly  Bradford  concludes,  "I  leave  him  to 
the  Lord."  The  connotation  as  to  Bradford's  belief 
about  Lyford's  future  habitation  is  indisputable. 

In  this  same  year,  1625,  there  came  over  Captain 
Wollaston,  with  some  three  or  four  assistants  and  a 
considerable  number  of  indented  servants,  well  supplied 
with  tools  and  provisions,  for  the  founding  of  a  trading 
and  fishing  post  of  the  type  the  Pilgrims  themselves 
had  intended  to  erect.  Things,  however,  went  badly 
with  them  and  Wollaston  took  a  considerable  part  of 
the  servants  to  Virginia,  where  he  sold  his  interest  in 
their  future  labor  for  the  seven  years  of  their  service. 
Having  gotten  what  he  believed  to  be  good  prices,  he 
wrote  to  the  partner  left  in  Massachusetts  to  bring  the 
rest  of  the  band  to  Virginia.  One  of  his  assistants  was 
Thomas  Morton,  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  dramatic 
characters  in  early  Massachusetts  history.  He  seems 
to  have  had  some  slight  education  in  the  classics,  to  have 
practiced  law,  certainly  in  a  desultory  way  and  perhaps 
a  not  altogether  responsible  manner,  and  to  have  pos- 
sessed an  unnecessarily  liberal  assortment  of  vices.  The 
idea  occurred  to  him  of  securing  a  colony  of  his  own 
by  the  very  simple  expedient  of  stealing  his  partners' 
servants. 

These  men  had  all   signed  indentures  in  England, 


138  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

agreeing  to  work  for  seven  years  in  return  for  their 
passage  money,  and  they  still  owed  some  five  or  six  years 
of  service.  Morton  seems  to  have  gotten  them  thor- 
oughly drunk  and  then  to  have  pointed  out  to  them, 
that,  if  they  submitted  to  the  authority  of  Wollaston 
and  went  to  Virginia,  their  time  would  there  be  sold  to 
the  planters,  and  they  would  be  compelled  to  work  five 
or  six  years  more.  The  simpler  course  was  for  them  to 
decline  to  go  and  remain  with  him  as  partners  and 
equals.  They  would  thus  become  free  at  once  and  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  an  enterprise  of  their  own.  The  idea  com- 
mended itself  to  the  laborers  and  they  accordingly 
mutinied  and  turned  out  the  assistants  of  Wollaston. 
Morton  thus  acquired  a  colony  without  expense,  but 
also  a  colony  in  which  he  had  no  more  authority  than 
anybody  else,  and  in  which  his  lusty  fellows  promptly 
betook  themselves  to  the  vices  of  civilization.  Merri- 
mount,  as  they  presently  christened  the  settlement, 
became  a  sort  of  a  drunkard's  resort  and  gambling  hell, 
very  much  of  the  type  which  were  found  on  the  frontier 
in  the  early  days  of  the  West.  Drink  flowed  freely; 
licentious  conduct  with  Indian  women  became  the  rule; 
and  rogues  and  desperate  white  men,  rascally  Indians, 
and  runaway  servants  began  to  drift  into  Merrimount 
from  all  parts  of  the  coast.  It  became  indeed  a  rendez- 
vous for  adventurers  and  piratical  rascals  and  was  in 
itself  dangerous  to  the  existence  and  welfare  of  the  little 
settlement  of  honest  men  nearby  at  Plymouth. 

Morton  had  however  a  really  clever  idea,  despite  its 
danger  and  unscrupulous  character.  He  had  realized 
of  course  at  first  that  the  Indians  would  sell  beaver  a 
good  deal  quicker  for  "strong  water"  than  they  would 
for  trinkets,  and  that  they  would  work  a  good  deal 


The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan         139 

harder  to  collect  beaver  enough  for  a  complete  drunk 
than  they  would  for  any  other  reward  that  the  white 
man  could  offer.  For  a  time  he  collected  in  this  way  a 
considerable  amount  of  fur.  He  then  saw  that  the  In- 
dians were  greatly  hampered  in  hunting  by  the  primitive 
nature  of  their  weapons  and  that  if  they  could  only  be 
armed  with  guns  and  be  taught  to  use  those  weapons 
skilfully,  they  would  become  deadly  hunters,  with  a 
consequently  amazing  profit  to  him.  He  therefore  began 
systematically  to  provide  the  Indians  of  the  district 
with  arms,  powder,  and  shot  and  to  teach  them  care- 
fully how  to  use  them,  assuring  them  that  all  the  alluring 
evils  of  civilization  would  be  their  reward  after  a  suc- 
cessful hunt.  The  profits  were  all  that  he  thought  they 
might  be,  but  a  very  obvious  danger  to  the  small  bodies 
of  whites  in  the  vicinity  became  no  less  clear. 

The  Pilgrims  had  been  reasonably  safe,  because  their 
few  firearms  were  immensely  superior  to  the  Indian 
bows  and  arrows,  and  because  their  stockade  and  fort 
protected  them  from  any  assault  the  Indians  could  very 
well  make.  There  were  however  on  the  coast  a  con- 
siderable number  of  small  trading  factories,  many  of 
which  numbered  no  more  than  a  dozen  or  a  score  of 
men,  and  these  found  themselves  seriously  threatened  by 
the  bands  of  well-armed  Indians,  thoroughly  skilled  in 
the  use  of  guns,  who  began  presently  to  roam  the  woods 
of  Massachusetts.  There  were  therefore  many  good 
counts  against  Morton  and  many  excellent  reasons  for 
disposing  of  him,  beside  the  crowning  iniquity  of  which 
the  Pilgrims  complained,  the  erection  of  a  Maypole 
at  Merrimount,  which  was  duly  celebrated  in  song  and 
drunken  ribaldry  by  Morton  and  his  crew.  Concerted 
action  was  planned  by  the  Pilgrims  and  the  other  settle- 


140  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

ments  on  the  coast,  and,  after  summoning  him  twice  by 
letter  to  reform  his  ways  and  forbear  arming  the  Indians, 
they  finally  decided  to  deal  with  him  by  force. 

Standish  accordingly  set  out  for  Merrimount  with  a 
body  of  Pilgrims,  well  armed,  and,  if  Morton  is  to  be 
believed,  captured  him  some  eight  miles  from  Merri- 
mount and  took  him  to  a  nearby  house.  Here,  as  Mor- 
ton tells  it,1  they  ate  and  drank  heavily  and  slept  there- 
fore unduly  soundly.  Up  got  Morton  in  the  middle  of 
the  night,  stepped  carefully  over  the  keepers  supposed 
to  be  guarding  him,  and  escaped.  The  banging  of  the 
door  roused  them.  "O!  he's  gon,  he's  gon,  what  shall 
wee  doe,  he's  gon.  The  rest  (halfe  a  sleepe)  start  up  in  a 
maze  and  like  rames  ran  theire  heads  one  at  another 
full  butt  in  the  darke.  Theire  grande  leader,  Captaine 
Shrimp,  tooke  on  most  furiously  and  tore  his  clothes 
for  anger,  to  see  the  empty  nest,  and  their  bird  gone. 
The  rest  were  eager  to  have  torne  theire  haire  from 
theire  heads;  but  it  was  so  short  that  it  would  give  them 
no  hold."  Morton  hurried  through  the  woods  back  to 
Merrimount,  where  he  made  ready  to  receive  Standish, 
whom  he  knew  would  follow  promptly. 

Bradford  as  was  to  be  expected,  gives  a  somewhat 
different  flavor  to  the  final  incident.  The  Pilgrims  landed 
at  Merrimount  from  their  boat  and  found  that  Morton 
had  barricaded  himself  in  the  house  and  had  armed  his 
men.  After  a  sort  of  Homeric  battle  of  words  and 
epithets  between  the  two  parties  through  the  door, 
Morton  and  some  of  his  crew  came  out  to  fight,  but 

1New  English  Canaan,  ed.  by  C.  F.  Adams,  for  the  Prince 
Society,  284-285.  This  is  the  most  entertaining  and  amusing 
account  of  early  New  England  and  is  certainly  responsible  for 
much  of  the  attention  Morton  has  received  from  students. 


The  Tares  in  the  New  English  Canaan         141 

proved  to  be  so  exceedingly  drunk  that  they  were  un- 
able to  keep  their  heavy  muskets  upon  the  rests  which 
they  set  up  in  front  of  them  when  they  fired.  Morton, 
with  a  musket  crammed  half  full  with  powder  and  shot, 
attempted  to  kill  Standish,  but  the  fiery  little  captain 
pushed  the  gun  aside  with  his  hand  and  arrested  him. 
Neither,  says  Bradford,  "was  ther  any  hurte  done  to  any 
of  either  side,  save  that  one  was  so  drunke  that  he  rane 
his  owne  nose  upon  the  pointe  of  a  sword  that  one  held 
before  him  as  he  entred  the  house,  but  he  lost  but  a  litle 
of  his  hott  blood."  Morton  they  brought  to  Plymouth, 
and  presently  shipped  him  to  England  with  letters  tell- 
ing of  his  deeds.  The  worst  characters  of  his  colony  were 
disbanded  and  dispersed,  and,  though  Morton  returned 
somewhat  later,  he  bothered  the  Pilgrims  no  more. 
For,  after  a  brief  stay  at  Plymouth,  he  went  to  Massa- 
chusetts, where  the  Puritans  recently  come  dealt  with 
him  with  extreme  severity.  Thus  were  the  tares  up- 
rooted in  the  New  English  Canaan. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  YEAR  OF  DELIVERANCE — 1627 

The  year  162^  seems  to  be  the  turning  point  in  Pilgrim 
annals,  the  year  in  which  the  solution  of  the  problem  of 
subsistence  became  permanent,  and  in  which  the  future 
of  the  colony  was  practically  assured.1  The  anomalous 
contract  with  the  Adventurers  was  cancelled  and  replaced 
by  an  agreement  which  freed  the  Pilgrims  from  economic 
bondage.  The  leaders  undertook  the  payment  of  the 
outstanding  debt,  and,  though  not  without  misgivings, 
did  possess  a  real  confidence  in  their  ability  to  discharge 
it  from  the  proceeds  of  the  really  profitable  trade  they 
had  already  established.  The  individual  allotments  of 
lands  and  houses,  already  temporarily  made,  were  at 
this  time  confirmed,  and  the  members  of  the  colony  were 
able  for  the  first  time  to  know  that  what  they  had  worked 
so  hard  to  create  was  theirs  in  fact.  The  beginnings  of  a 
herd  of  live  stock  and  of  draught  animals  had  been  made 
and  the  allotments  of  cattle  this  year  to  groups  of  in- 
dividuals was  an  important  step  in  the  improvement  of 
agriculture  and  of  the  hitherto  severe  conditions  of 
domestic  life.  Though  not  obtained  until  three  years 
later,  a  part  of  this  notable  settlement  was  certainly  the 
new  patent  of  1630,  which  vested  in  the  Pilgrims  them- 
selves the  title  to  their  land.  Surely  no  year,  not  even 
the  first,  records  more  significant  and  more  important 
changes  than  the  year  1627. 

The  position  of  the  Pilgrims  on  landing  at  Plymouth 

142 


The  Year  of  Deliverance — 1627  143 

was  peculiar.  The  patent  from  the  Virginia  Company 
they  had  brought  with  them  was  void  of  value  at  Plym- 
outh. The  contract  they  had  signed  with  the  Merchant 
Adventurers  at  Leyden  had  been  repudiated  by  the 
latter,  while  the  contract  signed  by  the  latter  and  Cush- 
man  had  been  repudiated  by  the  Pilgrims.  The  land 
they  stood  on  was  not  theirs.  The  tools  and  materials 
they  worked  with  did  not  belong  to  them  and  were  to 
be  paid  for  by  seven  years  of  labor,  like  those  of  Jacob 
for  Rachel,  the  conditions  of  which  were  yet  to  be  agreed 
upon.  Their  associates  in  England,  when  the  return  of 
the  Mayflower  made  their  whereabouts  known,  at  once 
procured  from  the  Council  for  New  England  a  new  patent 
bearing  the  date  June  first,  162 1.1  This  was  granted  to 
John  Peirce,  his  associates,  heirs,  and  assigns,  the  same 
in  whose  name  as  trustee  the  previous  patent  issued  by 
the  Virginia  Company  had  been  drawn.  It  gave  him 
and  his  associates  rather  limited  rights,  without  definite 
boundaries  and  with  certain  qualifications  and  conditions. 
The  settlers  under  it  were  empowered  to  take  up  one 
hundred  acres  of  land  for  every  person  transported  from 
England  in  the  original  colony,  if  the  colony  persisted 
three  whole  years  at  one  or  at  several  times,  and  one 
hundred  acres  of  land  for  all  additional  colonists,  trans- 
ported or  transporting  themselves  during  seven  years  and 
remaining  three  years  thereafter  "  with  intent  to  inhabit." 
The  hundred  acre  plots  were  to  adjoin  each  other,  and 
were  not  to  be,  as  the  patent  said,  "stragglingly."  An 
additional  fifteen  hundred  acres  might  be  appropriated 
to  maintain  churches,  schools,  hospitals,  and  the  like. 

1  The  original  is  now  at  Pilgrim  Hall,  Plymouth.  An  accurate 
reprint,  with  notes  by  Charles  Deane,  is  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
4th  Series,  II,  156-163. 


144  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Definitely  this  was  a  grant  of  a  settlement  colony,  not 
for  a  trading  factory,  and  knew  no  limit  of  location  in 
New  England  other  than  that  the  land  chosen  should 
not  at  the  time  be  inhabited  by  other  Englishmen. 
Under  it  they  might  remain  at  Plymouth  and  move  else- 
where. They  had  by  this  time  seen  Boston  Harbor  but 
evidently  did  not  choose  to  move  thither.  They  were 
graciously  permitted  to  ''truck,  trade,  and  traffique  with 
the  Salvages,"  and  "to  hunt,  hawk,  fish,  or  fowle." 
They  were  also  licensed  to  expel  from  their  territory  by 
force  of  arms  and  "by  all  wayes  and  meanes  whatsoeuer," 
all  persons  who  settled  on  their  lands  without  special 
permission.  A  grant  of  incorporation  was  promised  with 
power  to  govern  the  people  transplanted,  and  in  the 
meantime  they  should  get  along  "by  consent  of  the 
greater  part  of  them."  Feoffment  was  to  be  made  when 
due  notification  of  the  location  of  the  land  had  been 
legally  certified. 

The  Fortune  brought  this  patent  in  the  autumn  of 
162 1.  Robert  Cushman  came  as  the  agent  of  the 
Adventurers  to  secure  the  consent  of  the  Pilgrims  to  the 
amended  articles  which  had  been  rejected  in  England 
before  sailing.  After  considerable  debate  and  argument, 
the  articles  were  accepted.  Cushman  thus  returned  to 
England  with  their  promise  to  work  a  whole  week  in 
the  interests  of  the  Adventurers  throughout  the  period 
of  the  seven  years  for  which  the  contract  ran.  He  was 
also  to  remain  the  agent  of  the  colonists  in  England,  and 
was  to  see  that  the  new  emigrants  sent  out  to  them  and 
the  goods  intended  for  them  were  of  proper  quality  and 
quantity.  From  the  first  the  association  of  the  Pilgrims 
with  the  merchants  had  been  highly  unsatisfactory  to 
both,  and,  as  time  went  on,  the  dissatisfaction  grew 


The  Year  of  Deliverance — 162 7  145 

greater  rather  than  less.1  That  the  Mayflower  had 
brought  back  no  cargo  disgruntled  the  merchants  in 
England  exceedingly,  with  the  result  that  the  Fortune 
brought  colonists  but  no  food.  The  Pilgrims  loaded  the 
ship  with  clapboards  and  some  furs,  but  it  was  captured 
by  a  French  privateer  on  the  way  back  to  England,  the 
whole  cargo  was  taken  off  and  thus  lost.  In  1622,  there 
having  been  no  return  from  the  colony,  its  real  straits 
not  at  all  appreciated,  the  fact  that  a  cargo  had  been 
shipped  on  the  Fortune  not  yet  known,  the  merchants 
met,  disagreed,  quarreled,  and  sent  no  supplies.  Weston 
and  Beauchamp  broke  with  their  associates,  hired  two 
ships  themselves  which  they  loaded  with  cargo,  with  a 
number  of  emigrants,  and  a  patent  for  a  settlement. 
The  fortunes  of  the  men  sent  to  settle  we  have  already 
seen,  and  the  venture,  so  far  as  profit  was  concerned, 
proved  a  total  loss. 

Later  in  the  year  1622,  news  of  the  value  of  the  cargo 
the  Fortune  had  carried  revived  the  interest  of  the  Ad- 
venturers, who  contributed  enough  during  the  following 
winter  to  equip  the  Anne  and  the  Little  James,  to  pay 
the  passage  of  more  colonists,  and  to  send  with  them 
sufficient  food  to  carry  them  over  till  the  next  harvest. 
They  deemed  it  wise  not  to  rely  wholly  upon  the  energy 
of  the  Pilgrims  in  collecting  a  cargo,  and  provided  that 
the  two  ships  should  make  a  fishing  voyage  after  they 

xThe  relations  with  the  Adventurers  are  told  by  Bradford  at 
great  length  in  the  History.  There  is  also  a  fragment  of  his  orig- 
inal Letter  Book,  containing  some  additional  material,  printed  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1st  Series,  III.  A  long  letter,  written  by 
Bradford  and  Allerton  on  Sept.  8,  1623,  has  been  printed  in  the 
American  Historical  Review,  VIII,  294,  and  affords  confirmatory 
details.  This  is  the  only  original  letter  of  this  period  which  seems 
to  have  survived. 


146  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

had  deposited  their  colonists,  and  should  thus  collect 
their  own  cargo.  When  the  Anne  arrived  at  Plymouth 
in  1623,  the  courageous  decision  to  abandon  the  common 
stock  had  already  been  taken.  They  loaded  the  Anne 
with  dressed  lumber  and  sent  Winslow  back  to  England 
on  the  ship,  bearing  a  letter  to  the  Adventurers,  and 
with  instructions  to  borrow  money  on  the  Pilgrims'  ac- 
count for  the  purchase  of  goods  and  cattle.  The  greatness 
of  the  need  and  the  feeble  hopes  they  entertained  of  real 
assistance  were  clearly  writ  in  the  letter.  "We  wishte 
you  would  either  roundly  suply  us  or  els  wholy  forsake 
us,  that  we  might  know  what  to  doe."  They  had,  they 
said,  no  intention  of  making  an  agreement  with  another 
group  of  merchants,  but  would,  if  the  Adventurers  did 
desert  them,  do  the  best  they  could  for  themselves. 

To  anticipate  a  little,  in  1625  Standish  borrowed  £150 
at  fifty  per  cent  interest  and  bought  trading  goods  for 
exchange  with  the  Indians.  In  the  year  following  Aller- 
ton  was  sent  to  England  to  procure  £100  for  two  years. 
He  secured  £200  at  thirty  per  cent  and  a  considerable 
stock  of  goods.  In  1626  Bradford  and  the  leaders  were 
bold  enough  to  purchase  the  whole  stock  of  a  trading 
post  at  Monhegan,  which  had  failed  and  was  for  sale. 
A  French  ship  was  also  wrecked  on  the  coast  and  they 
bought  such  of  its  cargo  as  could  be  saved.  These  facts 
will  make  clear  the  extent  of  the  Pilgrims'  confidence  in 
themselves  and  the  definite  belief  after  1623  that  nothing 
was  to  be  expected  from  the  Adventurers.  The  letters 
of  the  latter  were  so  contradictory,  confused,  and  luke- 
warm, that  Bradford  and  the  leaders  were  unable  to 
make  up  their  minds  as  to  the  real  status  of  the  venture. 

Nothing  illustrates  more  vividly  the  discouragements 
and  difficulties  which  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Adventurers 


The  Year  of  Deliverance — 1627  147 

both  had  to  experience  than  the  ill-fated  voyages  of  the 
Little  James,  a  small  two-masted  craft  of  forty-four  tons, 
sent  over  by  the  Adventurers  in  1623  in  the  hope  of 
executing  the  original  plan  of  fishing  and  trading  from 
Plymouth  as  a  base,  in  a  vessel  large  enough  to  keep  the 
seas.  Bradford  had  immediate  doubts  of  the  sailors, 
whom  he  thought  rude,  and  of  the  master  whose  honesty 
he  seems  to  have  doubted.  His  fears  were  only  too  well 
founded,  for  the  crew  had  understood  that  the  ship  was 
to  be  a  privateer,  to  cruise  against  French  and  Spanish 
vessels,  and  that  they  were  to  receive  a  considerable  share 
of  the  prize  money.  The  Little  James  did  have  a  com- 
mission to  capture  ships,  but  the  real  intent  had  been 
to  catch  fish  on  the  Grand  Banks.  When  therefore  the 
crew  received  orders  from  Bradford  to  undertake  a  fish- 
ing voyage,  they  threatened  to  mutiny  and  were  finally 
pacified  only  by  being  paid  wages  out  of  the  Pilgrims' 
meagre  purse.  The  latter  stocked  the  ship  with  great 
difficulty  with  trading  goods  and  sent  her  around  to 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  but  the  Dutch  had  fore- 
stalled them,  the  Indians  had  sold  most  of  their  furs,  and 
the  ship  returned  practically  empty.  Just  before  enter- 
ing Plymouth  Harbor,  a  storm  broke  upon  her,  the 
anchors  failed  to  hold,  and  the  crew  saved  her  from 
going  ashore  on  one  of  the  shoals  by  sacrificing  the  main 
mast. 

During  the  winter,  with  great  difficulty  she  was 
refitted  and,  after  pinching  and  paring  to  the  utmost, 
the  colonists  managed  to  procure  enough  to  send  her 
on  a  fishing  voyage  along  the  Maine  coast.  There  she 
ran  into  a  storm,  stove  a  hole  upon  a  rock  "as  a  horse 
and  cart  might  have  gone  in"  and  sank.  Sometime 
later,  the  captains  of  the  summer  fishing  fleet  offered  to 


148  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

raise  the  vessel,  if  the  Pilgrims  would  bear  the  expense. 
This  offer  they  accepted  and  after  considerable  trouble 
the  ship  was  floated,  repaired,  and  sent  back  to  England 
in  1624.  There  one  of  the  adventurers,  Thomas  Fletcher, 
promptly  seized  her  for  a  debt  the  others  owed  him.  In 
1625,  in  hopes  of  making  good  his  expenses,  he  sent  her 
with  a  much  larger  ship,  the  Jacob,  to  procure  a  cargo 
of  fish  at  Cape  Cod.1  This  time  the  fishing  was  successful. 
Though  the  larger  ship  was  ordered  to  carry  her  fish  to 
Spain,  the  rumors  of  war  led  the  captain  to  return  to 
England,  where  the  cargo  arrived  inopportunely  and  was 
sold  at  a  loss.  The  Little  James  was  captured  in  the 
English  Channel  by  a  Barbary  pirate  and  was  carried 
to  Sallee  where  the  captain  and  seamen  were  sold  into 
slavery.  Needless  to  say,  Thomas  Fletcher  was  by  this 
time  hopelessly  bankrupt. 

In  1624  the  Adventurers,  who  still  hung  together,  sent 
out  the  ship  Charity  with  a  shipwright  and  salt-maker, 
as  well  as  some  cattle  and  a  patent  for  land  at  Gloucester, 
Massachusetts.  The  shipwright  was  to  build  more  coast- 
ing vessels  for  the  Pilgrims,  in  particular  a  ship  large 
enough  to  keep  the  sea  during  a  storm  and  decked  over, 
while  the  salt-maker  brought  salt  pans  to  make  salt  by 
evaporation  for  sale  to  the  shipping  fleet  which  came 
annually  to  the  Grand  Banks.  The  expectation  nat- 
urally was  that  the  profit  on  the  sale  of  the  salt  would 
be  very  great.  The  shipwright  however  died  of  fever; 
the  salt-maker  seemed  to  the  Pilgrims  a  vain  and  con- 
ceited fellow,  who  tried  to  make  them  think  that  boiling 
sea  water  in  a  pan  required  some  mysterious  skill.  They 
were  therefore  not  surprised  when  he  made  so  hot  a  fire 

1  Some  of  the  goods  on  this  voyage  were  not  to  be  sold  for  less 
than  seventy  per  cent  profit. 


Thr  Year  of  Deliverance — 1627  149 

underneath  his  pans  that  he  burned  the  house,  ruined 
the  pans,  and  thus  ended  that  part  of  the  venture.  The 
Charity  also  made  poor  work  of  fishing.  The  explanation 
to  the  Pilgrims  was  simple;  the  captain  was  "a  very 
drunken  beast  and  did  nothing  (in  a  maner)  but  drink 
&  gusle,  and  consume  away  the  time  &  his  victails  and 
most  of  his  company  followed  his  example. "  The  judg- 
ment of  God  was  upon  such  and  they  were  only  too 
definitely  punished  for  their  lack  of  temperance. 

When  the  news  of  these  misfortunes  finally  reached 
London,  the  Adventurers  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
they  could  do  no  more.  It  was  better  to  lose  what  they 
already  invested  than  to  throw  more  good  money  after 
bad.  The  Pilgrims  had  failed;  fishing  trips  had  failed, 
to  say  nothing  of  pirates  and  privateers.  Accordingly 
in  December,  1624,  they  wrote  the  Pilgrims  and  formally 
declared  the  partnership  dissolved.1  The  causes  they 
assigned  were  their  losses  at  sea  and  the  various  debts 
they  had  been  compelled  to  contract  to  support  the 
colony  in  addition  to  the  original  venture.  They  also 
stated  that  for  a  year  or  two  several  of  them  had  objected 
strenuously  to  extending  further  support  to  the  Pilgrims 
on  the  ground  that  they  were  Brownists.  They  therefore 
stood  in  the  way  of  the  emigration  to  Plymouth  of  the 
rest  of  the  Leyden  congregation  and  had  in  particular 
prevented  Robinson  from  leaving  for  America.  The 
reasons  were  not  so  interesting  to  the  Pilgrims  as  the 
tacit  expectation  that  the  Pilgrims  were  to  pay  the  in- 
debtedness of  such  Adventurers  as  still  remained,  which 
they  computed  to  be  £1400.  Nothing  definite  was  said 
as  to  future  relationship  between  them  and  Bradford  is 
silent  upon  the  reasons  why  the  Pilgrims  judged  it  inex- 
1  Bradford  quotes  the  letter  in  full,  History,  240. 


150  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

pedient  merely  to  allow  the  matter  to  drop,  as  this  letter 
seems  to  have  supposed  it  would. 

Good  reasons  therefor  are  not  far  to  seek.  The  ex- 
istence of  the  debt,  originally  incurred  by  the  emigration 
itself  as  well  as  by  subsequent  expenses,  was  a  legal  lien 
upon  the  lands,  goods,  and  profits  of  the  colony,  and, 
even  if  the  Merchant  Adventurers  showed  no  present 
intention  to  collect  the  money  or  to  enforce  their  claims, 
they  might  later  at  some  inopportune  moment  insist 
upon  them,  or  what  was  worse,  might  sell  them  to  others. 
The  Adventurers  indeed  were  not  a  company  nor  incor- 
porated, and  an  elaborate  search  of  English  records  has 
shown  no  trace  of  anything  more  formal  than  a  purely 
voluntary  agreement  between  some  seventy  men.  The 
Pilgrims,  however,  felt  it  essential  to  extinguish  all  claims 
upon  them  or  upon  their  future  labor.  So  many  shifts 
and  changes  had  taken  place;  so  many  of  the  Adventurers 
had  abandoned  their  claims  to  which  others  had  suc- 
ceeded; some  had  sold  to  others;  some  had  sold  to  the 
Adventurers  as  a  whole,  that  there  was  considerable 
doubt  as  to  what  the  legal  situation  was. 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  for  a  moment  that  the 
Adventurers  at  this  time  held  title  to  the  land  of  Plym- 
outh. The  patent  which  had  been  obtained  in  June, 
162 1,  in  the  name  of  Peirce  had  been  quietly  changed  by 
the  latter  in  the  following  year  to  an  obsolete  English 
land  form  known  as  a  Deed  Pole,  which  was  written  to 
him,  his  heirs,  associates,  and  assigns.  It  had  the  effect 
of  making  him  proprietor  of  Plymouth,  lord  paramount, 
lord  of  the  manor,  after  a  fashion.  The  settlers  were 
to  be  his  tenants;  their  lands,  goods,  and  houses  would 
be  his;  and  they  would  be  subject  to  him  as  feudal  lord 
and  to  his  courts  and  laws.    The  Adventurers,  when  they 


The  Year  of  Deliverance — 1627  151 

learned  of  this  stroke,  were  exceedingly  indignant  and 
tried  to  buy  him  out,  but  his  price  of  £500  seemed  to 
them  exorbitant.  In  December,  1622,  he  fitted  out  an 
expedition  to  take  possession  of  his  new  principality,  but 
the  ship  was  badly  damaged  by  a  storm  and  was  forced 
to  return.  In  February,  1623,  another  start  was  made, 
with  additional  passengers  and  freight  crowded  in,  in  the 
hope  of  recouping  the  losses  from  the  delay.  For  two 
weeks  the  ship  was  at  the  mercy  of  a  great  storm  in  the 
Atlantic,  her  main  mast  was  lost,  much  of  her  bulwarks 
torn  away,  and  with  very  great  difficulty  she  made  her 
way  back  to  England.  The  Adventurers  themselves 
had  expended  on  this  particular  voyage  some  £640,  Peirce 
having  undertaken  the  transportation  of  colonists  and 
goods.  Now  he  surrendered  his  stock  as  Adventurer 
to  his  associates  and  assigned  his  patent  to  the  com- 
pany. 

The  Pilgrims  thus  became  literal  tenants  of  the  Ad- 
venturers with  neither  title  nor  rights  in  their  own  land, 
and  were  utterly  dependent  upon  the  latter  for  securing 
any  in  the  future.  It  was  now  essential  to  make  definite 
and  clear  their  relation  to  the  Adventurers.  Somehow 
or  other  the  title  to  the  land  and  the  right  to  govern  must 
be  vested  in  the  Pilgrims  themselves  and  that  they 
realized  could  not  take  place  until  some  settlement 
satisfactory  to  the  merchants  had  been  reached.  Another 
reason  of  real  significance  also  urged  them  to  come  to  an 
agreement  with  the  latter.  They  saw  that  until  they  had 
somehow  or  other  freed  themselves  from  these  financial 
shackles,  and  had  legally  severed  their  connection  with 
these  men,  it  would  be  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  bring 
to  Plymouth  the  remainder  of  the  Leyden  congregation. 
The  Adventurers  stood  in  the  way  of  the  execution  of  the 


152  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

original  plan  and  it  was  feared  that  they  would  continue 
to  do  so. 

Allerton  accordingly  was  sent  to  England  in  1626  to 
borrow  money,  to  bring  back  goods,  and  to  reach  some- 
how an  agreement  with  the  Adventurers.1  This  he 
successfully  did  on  October  26,  at  a  meeting  to  which  the 
great  majority  of  those  concerned  in  the  venture  had  been 
invited.  They  sold  to  the  Pilgrims  "  all  and  every  the  said 
shares,  goods,  lands,  marchandice,  and  chattels  to  them 
belonging."  The  document  in  which  this  transaction  was 
recorded  was  intended  to  transfer  completely  the  whole 
bundle  of  legal  rights  of  any  sort  or  description,  which  the 
Adventurers  had  or  might  acquire,  in  consideration  for  a 
sum  of  eighteen  hundred  pounds  sterling  to  be  paid  in 
London  in  instalments  of  two  hundred  pounds  a  year  for 
nine  years  beginning  with  Michaelmas,  1628.  Some 
forty-two  names  were  signed  to  the  document.  Even- 
tually, further  documents  were  signed  and  the  bargain 
was  bound  and  sealed  on  parchment.  The  Pilgrims 
further  stipulated  that  the  bargain  was  not  to  become 
void  if  they  should  default  payment  on  the  particular  day 
and  hour;  they  might  be  prevented  by  the  weather  or  by 
enemies  from  reaching  London  in  time  and  should  not  be 
penalized  unless  the  fault  were  their  own.  They  were 
therefore  to  forfeit  thirty  shillings  a  week  for  every  week 
of  delay.  Thus,  exulted  Bradford,  "all  now  has  become 
our  own  as  we  say  in  the  proverb  when  our  debts  were 
paid.  .  .  .  This  wholly  dashed  all  the  plans  and  devices 
of  our  enemies  both  there  and  here  who  daily  expected 
our  ruin,  dispersion,  and  utter  subversion  by  the  same." 

xIt  may  be  that  the  proposition  to  buy  off  the  Adventurers 
originated  with  James  Shirley.  See  his  letter  to  Bradford  of 
December  27,  1627.    Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1st  Series,  III,  49. 


The  Year  of  Deliverance — 1627  153 

How  should  the  money  be  paid?  After  considerable 
discussion  among  the  leaders,  Bradford,  Standish,  Aller- 
ton,  Winslow,  Brewster,  Howland,  Alden,  and  Prence 
engaged  to  make  the  entire  payment  of  eighteen  hundred 
pounds  within  six  years,  and  to  provide  the  colony  in  the 
meantime  with  necessities  from  England,  to  be  exchanged 
for  corn  at  the  rate  of  six  shillings  a  bushel,  if  the  entire 
trading  privileges  of  the  colony  and  all  the  facilities  and 
stock  of  goods  should  be  turned  over  to  them  for  the 
purpose.  This  agreement,  signed  in  July,  1627,  gave 
them  the  name  Undertakers.  To  the  eight  were  added  in 
November  of  1628,  four  Londoners,  Shirley,  Beauchamp, 
Andrews,  and  Hatherly,  who  were  to  be  the  London 
agents  of  the  colony.  Isaac  Allerton  was  to  travel  back 
and  forth  supervising  the  sale  of  the  cargo  and  the  pur- 
chase of  new  goods  at  both  ends,  being  in  each  case  the 
accredited  representative  of  the  parties  absent.  The 
Undertakers  at  once  received  possession  of  the  shallops 
and  the  new  trading  sloop,  of  the  fishing  stage  at  Cape 
Anne,  of  the  station  on  the  Kennebec,  and  the  trading 
station  at  Cape  Cod,  with  a  considerable  stock  of  beads, 
hatchets,  knives,  and  the  like.  This  change  was  less 
radical  than  it  seems  at  first  sight  because  Bradford, 
Allerton,  Winslow,  and  Alden  seem  practically  to  have 
managed  the  entire  business  of  the  colony  since  1623,  when 
the  common  stock  was  abandoned.  It  then  became  evi- 
dent that  if  the  majority  were  to  work  in  the  fields  raising 
corn,  they  would  not  be  able  to  trade  or  fish,  and  that 
it  was  better  the  majority  should  support  some  few  of  the 
men  who  would  do  what  they  could  by  trading  toward 
raising  money  to  meet  their  debt  to  the  Adventurers.  In 
1627  therefore  an  arrangement  was  made  explicit  and 
legal  which  had  already  persisted  for  some  little  time. 


154  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

It  now  became  possible  to  make  permanent  the  tem- 
porary agreements  of  earlier  years  in  the  division  of  land 
and  houses.  In  1623,  it  will  be  remembered,  small  plots 
of  land,  apparently  not  uniform  in  size,  had  been  allotted 
to  various  individuals  and  families.  In  1624  one  acre 
had  been  allotted  each  family  "for  continuance"  during 
seven  years;  no  more  than  one  acre  had  been  granted  in 
order  that  the  colony  might  remain  compact  "for  safety 
and  for  religion."  Now  in  1627  the  horned  cattle,  which 
had  come  to  the  colony  in  the  last  three  years,  were  as- 
signed to  twelve  groups  of  people,  who  were  among  them 
to  care  for  the  beast  and  enjoy  such  use  of  it  and  per- 
quisites from  it  as  there  might  be.  Abuse  and  neglect 
were  to  be  charged  against  the  whole  group.  Early  in  the 
next  year  the  division  of  land  was  continued.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty-six  fields  were  laid  out,  covering  some 
five  square  miles,  and  ranging  from  the  Jones  River  to 
the  Eel,  with  the  village  of  Plymouth  in  the  middle. 
Each  family  retained  in  the  town  the  one  acre  plot  al- 
ready assigned  to  it  and  in  most  cases  the  house  upon  it, 
if  there  was  one;  the  Governor  and  a  number  of  the  lead- 
ers received  their  houses  and  plots  in  recognition  of  their 
services  to  the  colony.  The  large  farms  of  some  twenty 
acres  each  were  now  distributed  by  lot  with  some  at- 
tempt to  compensate  those  who  drew  the  most  distant. 
The  meadows  and  fields  upon  which  grass  was  growing 
were  retained  in  common,  and  the  poorer  land  seems  not 
to  have  been  distributed  at  all.  Thus  was  permanency 
attained  to  general  satisfaction.  The  status  was  also 
formally  recognized  of  those  who  were  in  the  colony  but 
not  of  it,  being  either  non-church  members  or  adherents 
of  other  forms  of  non-conformity.  While  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  right  of  these  "Purchasers,"  as  they  were 


The  Year  of  Deliverance — 162 7  155 

called,  to  the  ownership  of  land  was  at  this  time  recog- 
nized, their  right  of  occupancy  was  conceded  of  lands  to 
be  assigned  them,  a  definite  recognition  of  their  property 
in  goods  or  chattels  was  promised,  and  their  partnership 
in  the  enterprize  admitted.  Each  head  of  a  family  and 
each  self-supporting  bachelor  might  by  certain  for- 
malities become  a  "Purchaser,"  and  accepted  in  return 
for  his  privileges  one  equal  share  in  such  part  of  the  debt 
as  the  Undertakers  did  not  discharge. 

One  of  the  most  considerable  tasks  which  the  leaders 
now  assumed,  great  in  view  of  their  other  financial 
obligations,  was  the  financing  of  the  emigration  of  the 
remainder  of  the  Leyden  Congregation,  now  much  re- 
duced since  the  death  of  Robinson  in  1625.  The  plans 
were  made  at  Plymouth  in  1627  as  soon  as  the  settlement 
with  the  merchants  was  complete,  were  prosecuted  by 
Allerton  and  Shirley  in  London  during  1628,  with  the 
happy  result  that  in  August,  1629,  the  first  contingent  of 
thirty-five  came  on  the  Mayflower  and  in  the  following 
May  sixty  more  came  on  the  Handmaid.  The  total  cost 
reached  £550.  Only  forty-seven,  however,  of  the  new- 
comers were  from  Leyden,  the  other  colonists  on  these 
ships  emigrating  from  England  direct.  Thus  were  the 
survivors  at  last  reunited  after  so  many  troubles  and 
losses  both  in  America  and  in  Holland. 

Scarcely  less  significant  and  important  an  element  in 
the  new  settlement  was  the  patent  secured  from  the 
Council  for  New  England  in  1629  and  sealed  on  Jan- 
uary 13, 1629-1630.  This  put  an  end  to  doubts  about  the 
Pilgrim  title.  It  granted  to  William  Bradford,  his  heirs, 
associates,  and  assigns  a  certain  definite  territory,  prac- 
tically identical  with  the  present  counties  of  Plymouth, 
Bristol,  and  Barnstable,  omitting  Bingham  and  Howe 


156  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

and  including  a  part  of  eastern  Rhode  Island.  The  grant 
was  made  of  course  with  reference  to  the  Indian  names 
and  was  intended  really  to  include  the  entire  territory  of 
the  Pokanoket  Confederacy,  an  exceedingly  vague  dis- 
trict, and  one  whose  bounds  the  names  quoted  in  the 
charter  did  not  satisfactorily  define,  as  the  Pilgrims  later 
discovered  to  their  disquietude.  A  tract  of  land  on  the 
Kennebec  near  the  site  of  the  present  Augusta,  some 
thirteen  miles  long  and  fifteen  miles  wide,  on  either  side 
of  the  river,  was  confirmed  to  them.  The  land  was 
granted  in  fee  simple,  and  the  language  was  so  broad  and 
inclusive  as  to  confer  upon  them  every  right  possessed  by 
the  Council  itself,  including  the  power  of  government  over 
the  inhabitants  and  the  authority  to  deal  with  intruders. 
The  only  reservations  were  the  coining  of  money  and 
shares  of  gold  and  silver  for  the  Crown  and  Council  for 
New  England,  which,  needless  to  add,  never  accrued. 
The  Council  appointed  Standish  its  attorney  to  deliver 
possession  to  Bradford  or  his  representatives.  The  cer- 
emony was  probably  performed  by  the  transference  of 
the  turf,  twig,  and  water  of  the  most  formal  feoffment  of 
medieval  law.  The  question  however  was  later  raised  by 
those  anxious  to  dispute  the  Pilgrim  title  as  to  whether 
such  feoffment  was  capable  of  transfering  the  power  to 
govern  and  the  right  to  enact  and  enforce  laws.  The 
attempt  in  the  following  year  to  secure  a  royal  charter, 
confirming  the  grant  of  land  and  with  an  equally  liberal 
grant  of  authority,  failed.  In  1640  Bradford  assigned  the 
Patent  and  all  rights  under  it  to  the  entire  body  of  free- 
men of  the  colony. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   GREAT  ACHIEVEMENT 

The  Pilgrims  had  convincingly  demonstrated  no  less 
significant  a  proposition  than  the  practicality  of  the 
colonization  of  the  New  World.  Posterity  has  dwelt 
upon  their  high  moral  qualities,  upon  their  courageous 
daring,  upon  their  religious  idealism;  their  contempora- 
ries were  impressed  chiefly  by  their  economic  success. 
Contrary  to  an  impression  only  too  widespread,  the  Pil- 
grims were  not  the  first  religious  enthusiasts  to  sail  for 
America,  nor  the  first  body  of  men  and  women  of  high 
quality  and  consecration  to  land  in  the  New  World.  In 
the  sixteenth  century  had  come  the  Huguenots;  several 
congregations  of  Separatists  seem  to  have  cherished  the 
idea  of  emigration;  Blackwell  and  a  number  of  the  Pil- 
grims' friends  had  actually  sailed  for  the  Chesapeake  in 
1618-1619.  But  just  as  there  had  been  many  predeces- 
sors of  Columbus  who  had  believed  that  the  world  was 
round  and  that  one  might  sail  from  West  to  East,  so  the 
Pilgrims  had  had  progenitors.  Like  Columbus,  they 
were  the  first  to  succeed,  the  first  to  demonstrate  the 
practicality  of  colonization.  They  planted  the  first 
permanent,  independent  settlement  in  the  New  World,  in 
which  the  initiative  lay  with  the  emigrants  and  not  with 
capitalists  or  kings.  They  were  the  first  organized  body 
of  people  to  leave  the  Old  World  in  expectation  of  con- 
tinuing the  life  of  their  organization  in  the  new.  They 
proved  that  a  small  body  of  men  and  women,  without 
capital  or  resources,  and  without  governmental  support, 

157 


158  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

could  maintain  themselves  in  New  England  from  the 
product  of  their  own  labor  on  the  soil  of  the  country  with- 
out systematic  assistance  from  England.  They  proved 
that  even  a  small  body  of  poverty  stricken  men  and 
women  could  cut  loose  from  Europe  and  safely  take  up 
residence  in  the  New  World,  with  every  probability  of 
being  able  to  live  without  enduring  too  much  physical 
hardship,  and  with  every  prospect  of  practical  freedom 
from  European  interference.  This  was  the  economic 
fact  the  Pilgrims  demonstrated. 

The  essential  element  was  their  undoubted  weakness 
and  poverty.  There  had  come  to  New  England  in  1620 
one  hundred  and  two  people,  without  equipment,  ex- 
pecting to  be  maintained  from  England  and  not  from  the 
proceeds  of  their  own  labor.  They  had  expected  to  fish 
and  to  collect  furs,  to  cut  lumber,  to  export  to  the  mother 
country  materials  whose  sale  would  make  possible  the 
purchase  of  necessities  they  would  consume  in  the  New 
World.  The  whole  project  failed.  The  original  plan  was 
from  the  outset  abandoned.  Maintenance  from  the 
proceeds  of  their  own  labor  in  America  became  essential, 
even  though  the  necessary  tools  and  supplies  had  not  been 
provided.  Sickness  came;  half  of  them  died.  The 
promised  aid  from  England  did  not  materialize  as 
promptly  and  as  regularly  as  was  imperative.  The 
commercial  ventures  from  which  so  much  had  been  ex- 
pected went  wrong  from  the  first.  The  Mayflower  could 
carry  no  cargo;  the  Fortune  was  captured  by  pirates; 
supplies  sent  to  them  were  lost  at  sea;  their  cargoes  re- 
turned were  unfortunately  sold  at  a  loss.  It  scarcely 
seemed  possible  that  any  body  of  men  and  women  could 
have  struggled  with  more  adverse  fortune  or  have  re- 
ceived less  effective  assistance  than  they. 


The  Great  Achievement  159 

And  yet,  somehow,  the  little  colony  survived.  Houses 
built  by  their  own  hands  rose  in  considerable  number, 
built  of  hewn  plank  with  well  thatched  roofs.  Behind 
them  busy  hands  created  gardens.  Beyond  in  the  fields 
the  same  untiring  energy  sowed  corn  and  grain;  in  the 
woods  lumber  was  cut  to  be  exported;  furs  were  bought 
from  the  Indians  to  be  sold  in  England.  By  1627  the 
accumulated  misfortunes  of  the  Pilgrims,  the  unsatis- 
factory support  of  the  merchants,  the  efforts  of  wind, 
sea,  and  pirates  had  somehow  not  been  able  to  prevent 
the  little  colony  from  prospering.  They  had  landed 
deeply  in  debt,  without  any  adequate  store  of  even  the 
necessities  of  life,  with  only  a  few  carpenters'  tools  and 
rude  agricultural  implements,  and  a  few  guns  and  pow- 
der. And  they  had  built  a  town,  owned  fields  and  trading 
stations,  and  had  begun  to  accumulate  a  herd  of  cattle. 
Food,  shelter,  and  clothing  were  assured  them  beyond 
doubt;  profit  even  they  knew  they  would  make  in  the 
future.  After  the  first  great  sickness  the  mortality  had 
been  small.  One  hundred  and  two  had  come  in  1620  on 
the  Mayflower;  thirty-five  had  been  brought  by  the 
Fortune  in  162 1,  sixty  by  the  Anne  and  the  Little  James 
in  1623,  and  of  the  one  hundred  ninety-nine  there  were 
alive  in  1627,  one  hundred  fifty-six  besides  some  twenty 
or  thirty  laborers  and  indented  servants  who  did  not 
have  the  status  of  free  men.1  To  be  sure,  some  of  those 
who  came  in  the  ships  named  had  moved  from  Plymouth 
to  other  parts  of  New  England  or  Virginia;  some  few 
originally  in  other  parties  had  made  their  way  to  Plym- 

1One  hundred  ninety-nine  came;  sixty-eight  were  born  at 
Plymouth;  fifty-eight  had  died;  fifty- three  had  removed  elsewhere; 
leaving  one  hundred  fifty-six.  Fifty-two  had  died  in  the  first  year 
and  only  six  during  the  following  six  years. 


160  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

outh  and  had  there  found  welcome.  There  were  fifty- 
seven  men,  twenty-nine  women,  thirty-four  boys,  and 
thirty-six  girls  at  Plymouth  in  1627  when  the  common 
stock  was  brought  to  an  end  and  "the  Purchasers"  were 

,  organized.  Forty-two  of  these  people  had  come  in  the 
Mayflower.  They  possessed  in  common  four  cows,  seven 
young  heifers,  four  young  bulls,  eighteen  goats,  and,  if 
Captain  John  Smith  can  be  believed,  a  good  many 
swine  and  poultry.  A  Dutch  agent  from  New  Amster- 
dam who  visited  Plymouth  in  this  year  for  the  purpose 
of  opening  trade,  was  particularly  impressed  by  its 
general  aspect  of  solidity,  comfort,  and  prosperity.  He 
thought  on  the  whole  they  were  materially  better  off 
than  the  Dutch  and  English  colonists  whom  he  had  seen 
on  the  coast.  Their  morale  and  discipline  were  un- 
doubtedly better  and  all  augured  well  for  the  future. 
What  impressed  their  contemporaries  was  the  essential 
fact  which  has  made  a  place  for  the  Pilgrims  in  history. 
They  came  to  America  to  make  homes,  came  with  a 

%  definite  determination  not  to  return,1  with  a  motive  for 
residence  more  vital  than  commercial  profit.  In  a  pam- 
phlet printed  by  Brewster  in  16 19,  their  purpose  in 
leaving  for  America  was  denned:  "That  they  might 
make  way  for  and  unite  with  others  what  in  them  lieth, 
whose  consciences  are  grieved  with  the  state  of  the 
Church  in  England."  2  A  little  later  Winslow  declared 
that  they  were  leaving  to  show  other  Separatists  "where 
they  might  live  and  comfortably  subsist,  and  enjoy  the 
like  liberties  with  ourselves,  being  freed  from  antichris- 

1  Robinson  and  Brewster  to  Sandys,  Dec.   15,  161 7.     Arber, 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  285-286. 

2  Euring,  An  Answer  to  Ten  Counter  Demands,  quoted  by  Dexter, 
England  and  Holland  of  the  Pilgrims,  578. 


The  Great  Achievement  161 

tian  bondage;  keep  their  names  and  nation;  and  not  only 
be  a  means  to  enlarge  the  dominions  of  our  State,  but  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  also."  1  Of  their  extraordinary 
qualifications  as  home  makers,  they  were  thoroughly 
conscious,  and  Robinson  and  Brewster,  writing  to  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys  on  December  15,  161 7,  enumerated  them 
as  an  inducement  to  the  Virginia  Company  to  assist  the 
enterprize.  "We  are  well  weaned/ '  said  they,  "from  the 
delicate  milke  of  our  mother  country;  and  enured  to  the 
difficulties  of  a  strange  and  hard  land:  which  yet,  in  a 
great  parte  we  have  by  patience  overcome.  The  people 
are,  for  the  body  of  them,  industrious  &  frugall,  we 
thinke  we  may  safly  say,  as  any  company  of  people  in  the 
world.  ...  It  is  not  with  us  as  with  other  men  whom 
small  things  can  discourage  or  small  discontentments 
cause  to  wish  them  selves  at  home  againe."  They  knew 
they  were  different  in  principle  and  in  quality  from  the 
great  bulk  of  men  and  women  who  had  come  to  Amer- 
ica.   They  augured  well  from  the  fact. 

They  felt  that  colonies  had  failed  in  America  hitherto 
because  men  had  come  to  live  in  factories  and  trading 
settlements,  meant  to  be  permanent,  but  not  regarded 
either  by  the  settlers  or  by  the  authorities  in  England  as 
homes,  as  desirable  residences.  Those  who  came  were 
lured  by  hope  of  profit,  by  love  of  adventure  rather  than 
by  the  expectation  of  a  hard  but  useful  life  in  a  new 
country.2  They  had  not  severed  themselves  from  the 
Old  World  nor  yet  thought  of  themselves  as  no  longer 
part  of  it.  They  had  failed  because  they  had  come  as 
sojourners  only  and  because  their  motives  were  sordid. 
Some  indeed  had  been  worthy,  but  they  had  failed  for  one 

1  Winslow,  Hypocrisy  Unmasked,  89. 

2  Bradford,  History,  35. 


1 62  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

reason  or  another  to  gain  a  foothold.  The  Pilgrims  came 
to  succeed  in  founding  a  home  or  to  die  in  the  attempt.1 
Even  the  Merchant  Adventurers  who  financed  them 
seem  to  have  been  impressed  with  this  phase  of  the 
Pilgrim  venture,  and  urged  them,  even  in  their  own 
moments  of  greatest  discouragement,  to  hold  out  and 
demonstrate  that  colonization  was  possible.  "You 
have  been  instruments,"  they  wrote  in  1623,  "to  breake 
the  ise  for  others  who  come  after  with  less  difficulty; 
the  honour  shall  be  yours  to  the  world's  end."  2  "We 
are  still  perswaded,"  they  declared  in  December,  1624, 
in  the  discouraging  letter  that  severed  relations  between 
them  and  the  Pilgrims;  "you  are  the  people  that  must 
make  a  plantation  in  those  remoate  places  when  all 
others  faile  and  returne."  3  They  were  right.  The  Pil- 
grims did  succeed.  They  taught  the  English  people  to 
look  upon  America  as  a  habitable  and  desirable  home  for 
those  dissatisfied  in  England.  In  that  fact  lay  the  true 
germ  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

One  other  fact  almost  equally  significant  they  also 
established.  They  came  not  at  all  to  continue  the  sort 
of  life  they  had  led  in  Europe,  to  reproduce  the  same 
institutions  they  had  known  there,  but  to  create  a  new 
commonwealth,  "to  live  as  a  distincte  body  by  them 
selves,"  as  Bradford  said,4  to  become,  in  the  words  of 
Robinson,  "a  body  politic."  5    They  brought  with  them 

1  "Yea,  though  they  should  loose  their  lives  in  this  action,  yet 
might  they  have  comforte  in  the  same,  and  their  endeavours  would 
be  honorable."    Bradford,  35.    See  also,  96,  97. 

2  Letter  from  thirteen  of  the  Adventurers,  Bradford,  174. 

3  Bradford,  242. 

4  History,  37. 

5  Robinson's  final  letter  of  counsel  spoke  of  "your  intended 
course  of  Civil  Community;"  "whereas  you  are  to  become  a  Body 


The  Great  Achievement  163 

the  ideal  of  a  new  state,  of  a  new  "civil  community,"  in 
which  conditions  political,  religious,  and  legal  should  be 
different  from  those  they  had  known  in  Europe.  From 
their  experience  the  Puritan  leaders  of  the  great  emigra- 
tion to  Boston  drew  in  1627  the  conclusion  that  the 
English  authorities  were  ready  to  grant  practical  local 
autonomy  to  intending  colonists.  The  Pilgrims  indeed 
had  been  seven  years  in  New  England  and  neither  the 
English  King  or  the  English  Church  had  evinced  the 
slightest  intention  to  interfere  with  their  conduct  of  their 
own  affairs.  The  Council  of  New  England,  their  imme- 
diate superior,  had  put  forth  certain  pretensions  but  had 
made  no  consistent  attempt  to  make  them  good.  Here  lay 
the  germ  of  the  future  independence  of  the  United  States. 
At  the  same  time,  we  shall  do  well  as  students  to 
recognize  that  neither  the  Pilgrims  nor  their  contem- 
poraries in  the  least  anticipated  such  an  independent 
political  community  as  the  United  States  was  in  1789. 
If  we  suppose  that  the  Pilgrims  came  to  forget  that  they  . 
were  Englishmen,  to  disavow  their  English  allegiance, 
and  to  establish  a  state  which  should  not  fly  the  English 
flag  or  recognize  the  English  King,  we  shall  fall  into  a 
most  grievous  error.  Indeed,  was  not  their  main  object 
in  leaving  Holland  to  return  to  the  English  allegiance,  to 
establish  a  community  where  their  English  habits  and 
ways  could  be  perpetuated  under  the  English  flag?  The 
real  difficulty  lies  in  our  failure  to  appreciate  the  fact  that 
the  notion  of  political  independence  and  of  popular 

Politic,  using  among  yourselves  Civil  Government."  Arber, 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  404.  The  plan  for  the  colony  under  Dutch  aus- 
pices speaks  of  the  Pilgrims'  desire  "to  plant  there  a  new  Com- 
monwealth." Arber,  98.  See  also  Hist.  Mss.  Com.,  8th  Report , 
Appendix,  Part  II,  45. 


164  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

sovereignty,  which  underlay  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  1789,  was  utterly  foreign  to  the  political 
thinking  of  seventeenth  century  England.  There  were 
perhaps  a  few  students  of  Buchanan  and  Bodin  who  had 
some  vague  notion  of  sovereignty,1  but  the  rank  and  file 
still  thought  in  feudal  terms,  and  their  concept  of  in- 
dependence was  based  upon  a  distinction  difficult  for  the 
modern  world  to  appreciate. 

The  Pilgrims  were  familiar  with  the  manorial  custom 
of  Scrooby  and  with  the  practical  immunity  which  they 
had  enjoyed  under  the  feudal  Liberty,  or  exemption, 
owned  by  the  Archbishop,  from  royal  officers  and  courts 
and  from  county  officers  and  courts.  Allegiance  they 
owed  the  King  undoubtedly,  as  did  the  Archbishop; 
English  citizens  they  clearly  were;  English  nationality, 
language,  habits  they  proudly  owned;  and  saw  no  in- 
constancy in  a  frank  and  ready  admission  of  all  this 
feudal  fealty  with  an  entire  autonomy  in  practical  gov- 
ernment. This  same  practical  immunity  from  active  rule 
by  royal  officials  they  expected  to  achieve  in  America  by 
reason  of  the  distance,  and  saw  in  it  no  seeds  of  political 
independence  nor  of  popular  sovereignty,  nor  dreamed 
of  a  written  constitution  and  legislation.  That  they 
would  be  a  civil  community  of  a  new  type  they  seem  to 
have  known;  that  their  relation  to  the  English  crown 
would  be  perhaps  anomalous  they  realized,  but  that  it 
implied  any  disloyalty  or  any  renunciation  of  fealty, 
they  denied  strenuously  to  those  who  complained  that 
they  were  seeking  to  be  "several  lords  and  kings  of 
themselves." 2  But  they  did  prove  that  practical 
autonomy  in  civil  government  was  to  be  had  in  the  new 

1  Brewster  possessed  a  copy  of  Bodin. 

2  Captain  John  Smith,  True  Travels,  ed.  1629,  46. 


The  Great  Achievement  165 

world,  that  it  would  carry  with  it  a  lack  of  control  and 
supervision  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  a  very  real  exemp- 
tion from  anything  more  than  nominal  taxation.  Em- 
boldened by  their  example,  the  Puritan  leaders  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  attempted  a  government 
literally  independent  of  the  Crown  save  for  allegiance. 
The  legal  concept  of  the  relation  of  those  first  colonies  to 
the  Crown,  as  they  themselves  conceived  it,  was  that  of 
free  and  common  socage,  of  feudal  relationship,  of  the  old 
tenure,  not  of  a  new  political  expedient. 

Their  economic  success  and  their  establishment  of  a 
civil  government  of  their  own  were  the  direct  causes  of 
the  colonization  of  New  England  on  a  great  scale  by  the 
Puritans  in  the  decade  following  1627.  Both  proved  to 
the  Puritan  leaders  that  men  of  wealth,  of  ability,  of 
foresight,  could  easily,  with  the  lessons  of  the  Pilgrims  to 
guide  them,  establish  themselves  in  the  New  World 
safely  and  without  apprehension  of  interference.  The 
problem  was  simple,  success  was  positive  for  a  group  as 
powerful  and  as  wealthy  as  theirs,  if  as  weak  and  poverty 
stricken  a  group  as  the  Pilgrims  had  been  able  to  survive. 
If  therefore  the  founding  of  Boston  and  the  expansion  of 
New  England  became  definitive  facts  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States,  if  the  strength  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony  and  its  size  became  a  guarantee  of  the  per- 
manence of  the  English  grasp  of  North  America,  the 
Pilgrims  were  their  cause.  With  the  motives  leading 
individual  Puritans  to  leave  England,  the  Pilgrims  had 
no  immediate  connection.  They  were  themselves  prod- 
ucts of  the  economic  and  ecclesiastical  history  of  England" 
in  the  previous  century,  and  not  its  cause.  But  it  is 
perhaps  not  too  much  to  say  that  had  they  not  come,  and 
had  they  not  succeeded,  the  energy  of  the  great  emigra- 


1 66  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

tion  to  Massachusetts  would  have  expended  itself  else- 
where and  the  history  of  the  world  might  perhaps  have 
been  different. 

The  direct  influence  of  the  Pilgrims  upon  the  leaders 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  is  definitely  and  clearly 
established.1  Six,  and  in  all  probability  nine,  of  the 
guarantors  of  the  Bay  Colony  had  been  members  of  the 
Merchant  Adventurers  who  financed  the  Pilgrims  and 
who  knew  therefore  intimately  the  whole  story.  Goffe 
was  an  intimate  friend  of  Winthrop.  Pocock  came  to  the 
Colony  and  was  Deputy  Governor  in  Massachusetts 
under  Winthrop.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Cradock 
and  other  leaders  of  the  Boston  Colony  corresponded 
with  the  Pilgrims,2  saw  Allerton  in  England,  and  secured 
details  from  him  in  regard  to  conditions  in  America. 
There  was  also  Endicott  at  Salem,  who  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  Pilgrims  for  nearly  two  years  before 
the  Boston  Colony  sailed.  Anyone  who  will  read  even 
casually  the  minutes  of  the  meetings  of  the  Governor  and 
Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  for  1628-1629,  and  who 
will  study  the  elaborate  lists  of  necessary  materials  to  be 
brought  for  a  settlement  colony,  will  have  no  doubt  that 
the  experience  of  the  Pilgrims  was  the  essential  fact  guid- 
I  ing  those  preparations.  It  is  through  Massachusetts, 
f  through  New  England,  and  through  all  that  New  Eng- 
land stands  for,  that  the  influence  of  the  Pilgrims  has 
*    been  greatest. 

1  Ames,  Log  of  the  Mayflower,  56-58;  Arber,  Pilgrim  Fathers,  322. 

2  Cradock  sent  a  letter  to  Endicott  by  Allerton,  Feb.  16,  1628, 
1629,  Young.  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  132.  See  also  the 
General  Instructions  to  Governor  &  Company,  id.,  156.  See  also, 
"A  Catalogue  of  such  needefull  things  as  every  Planter  doth  or 
ought  to  provide  to  go  to  New  England,"  in  Higginson's  New 
England's  Plantation.    Salem,  1908,  pp.  113-114. 


The  Great  Achievement  167 

Many  great  achievements  have  been  the  work  of  men 
who  understood  vaguely  if  at  all  the  significance  of  what. 
they  had  accomplished.  Not  so  the  Pilgrims.  Even 
before  they  sailed  the  leaders  seem  to  have  had  an 
inkling  of  the  possible  influence  their  success  might  have. 
In  later  years  Bradford  rejoiced  "  That  with  their  miseries 
they  opened  a  way  to  these  new  lands;  and  after  these 
stormes,  with  what  ease  other  men  came  to  inhabite  in 
them,  in  respecte  of  the  calamities  these  men  suffered."  1 
Winslow,  in  1623,  writing  back  to  England,  declared 
"That  when  I  seriously  consider  of  things,  I  cannot  but 
think  that  God  hath  a  purpose  to  give  that  land,  as  an 
inheritance,  to  our  nation."  2  Exultant,  they  quoted 
from  Isaiah:  "A  little  one  becomes  a  thousand  and  a  small 
one  a  great  nation." 

1  History,  165.  Under  the  year  1630,  he  wrote:  "So  the  light 
here  kindled  both  to  many,  yea  in  a  sorte  to  our  whole  nation," 
id.,  332.  Sherley  wrote  to  Bradford  on  June  24,  1633,  "For  had 
not  you  and  we  joyned  and  continued  togeather,  New  England 
might  yet  have  been  scarce  knowne,  I  am  persuaded,  not  so  re- 
plenished and  inhabited  with  honest  English  people,  as  now  it 
is,"  id.,  369. 

In  1654,  Bradford  indited  a  poem,  which  has  been  printed  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc,  1st  Series,  XI,  479,  in  which  the  following 
stanza  occurs: 

"But  them  a  place  God  did  provide 
In  wilderness,  and  did  them  guide. 
Unto  the  American  shore 
Where  they  made  way  for  many  more. 
They  broke  the  ice  themselves  alone 
And  so  became  a  stepping  stone 
For  all  others,  who  in  like  case 
Were  glad  to  find  a  resting  place." 

2  Written  in  1623.    Arber,  Pilgrim  Fathers,  581. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

NEW  PLYMOUTH  IN  NEW  ENGLAND,    1627-1657 

Unquestionably  the  period  from  1627  to  the  death  of 
Bradford  in  1657  was  that  most  characteristic  of  life  in 
the  Old  Colony,  as  it  now  came  to  be  called.  The  ideal  of 
the  leaders  had  been  realized;  they  had  established  a 
commonwealth  in  accordance  with  God's  Ordinances  and 
saw  around  them  positive  assurance  of  its  future  pros- 
perity. The  Adventurers  had  been  bought  out;  title  to 
the  land  was  theirs;  interference  from  King  and  Bishops 
had  been  avoided.  The  foundations  of  the  Church 
seemed  at  last  absolutely  secure.  They  now  undertook 
to  shape  the  little  community  consciously  in  all  its  affairs 
and  observances,  political,  economic,  and  social,  as  well 
as  ecclesiastical,  in  accordance  with  what  they  under- 
stood to  be  God's  direct  commands.  This  is  the  char- 
acteristic period  of  life  at  Plymouth,  the  years  in  which 
the  idealism  of  the  earlier  decades  was  impressed  upon 
those  men  and  women  whose  descendants  so  faithfully 
transmitted  that  abundant  heritage  to  a  great  nation. 
To  the  study  of  that  heritage  we  must  presently  devote 
considerable  space. 

For  three  decades  there  is  little  to  tell  beyond  the  tale 
of  a  slow,  steady  growth  during  peaceful  years  given 
over  to  the  developing  of  the  land,  to  the  raising  of 
cattle,  to  the  improvement  of  agriculture,  and  to  the 
founding  of  new  towns.  Gradually,  better  houses  re- 
placed those  first  erected;  better  furniture  appeared; 

168 


New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  162J-1657     169 

clothing  improved  in  quality  and  in  amount;  many  of  the 
little  luxuries  of  English  life  became  more  and  more 
common.  To  the  Pilgrims  themselves  nothing  could  well 
have  been  more  important  or  satisfying  than  this  dis- 
appearance of  the  evidences  of  long,  grinding  poverty, 
but  those  who  come  to  study  it  later  are  inclined  to  pass 
it  impatiently  by,  intent  on  wars  and  rumors  of  wars 
which  afford  more  dramatic  material.  A  few  landmarks 
should  be  mentioned  and  beyond  them  there  is  little  to 
tell  of  happenings  at  Plymouth.  In  1629  the  first  minis- 
ter was  "called"  by  the  Pilgrims,  an  event  in  their  eyes 
of  stupendous  import.  In  1635,  something  like  a  code  of 
law  was  attempted  and  in  1636  the  form  of  government 
was  crystallized,  and  laws  embodying  it  were  enacted  by 
the  General  Court.  From  these  years  the  political 
"  constitution "  of  the  colony  dates.  In  1638,  came  the 
Pequod  War,  to  which  the  Pilgrims  sent  troops,  by  far 
the  most  important  single  venture  undertaken  in  New 
England  during  that  decade.  The  years  1639  and  1640 
saw  boundary  disputes  with  Massachusetts,  not  settled 
for  some  decades,  and  the  year  1640  the  assignment  of 
the  Patent  by  Bradford  to  the  freemen  as  a  whole.  The 
Undertakers  also  signified  their  willingness  to  surrender 
the  monopoly  of  the  Indian  trade.  The  formation  of  the 
New  England  Confederation  in  1643  regularized  and 
stimulated  constitutional  relations  with  the  more  recent 
colonies.  Beyond  doubt  the  events  next  in  importance 
were  the  loss  of  the  four  leaders  to  whom  the  colony  had 
owed  so  much.  Brewster  died  in  1643;  Winslow  left  for 
England,  never  to  return,  in  1646;  Standish  died  in 
1656;  and  Bradford  in  1657.  Bradford's  passing  marked 
the  end  of  an  era  in  Pilgrim  history  and  signified  the 
triumph  of  changes  in  the  character  of  life  in  the  colony,  * 


170  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

which  had  been  developing  for  two  decades,  but  which 
had  hitherto  never  been  really  apparent,  much  less 
dominant.  The  causes  for  the  disappearance  of  the  old 
Plymouth  and  for  the  rise  of  the  new  were  fundamental 
and  will  presently  engage  our  attention. 

There  can  be  little  question  that  the  most  important 
event  in  Pilgrim  annals  during  this  important  period 
from  1627  to  1657 — far  more  significant  in  its  effect 
upon  Pilgrim  life  and  ideals  than  anything  which  hap- 
pened within  the  limits  of  the  Old  Colony — was  the 
founding  and  rapid  growth  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  of 
the  other  New  England  colonies.  Not  infrequently  we 
come  to  realize  that  the  really  momentous  influences  in 
the  development  of  a  people  are  events  in  the  history  of 
other  nations,  questions  of  relative  rather  than  of  posi- 
tive growth,  the  reflex  and  indirect  results  of  vital 
happenings  elsewhere,  the  relation  of  one  community  to 
those  around  it.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  found- 
ing of  Massachusetts  Bay  promptly  altered  in  every 
conceivable  respect  the  position  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plym- 
outh, and  established  beside  them  a  new  community  of 
such  vigor,  size,  and  intellectuality  as  to  dominate  in- 
sensibly and  in  time  to  transform  the  ecclesiastical, 
political,  and  social  ideals  of  the  older  but  smaller  and 
weaker  entity.  No  direct  influence  or  conscious  dicta- 
tion was  attempted,  and  the  Pilgrims  jealously  watched 
for  the  slightest  evidence  of  a  disposition  to  interfere 
with  their  political  or  ecclesiastical  independence  and 
sternly,  though  politely,  declined  unsolicited  offers  of 
aid  and  assistance.  The  mere  existence  of  the  other 
colonies  is  the  fact  of  which  we  must  ever  be  conscious; 
Plymouth  was  no  longer  the  largest  settlement  north  of 
Jamestown,  and  that  alone  altered  the  value  of  every 


New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  1627-16 57     171 

element  in  the  economic,  governmental,  and  ecclesiastical 
equation. 

New  settlements  sprang  up  on  all  sides  of  Plymouth 
after  1628.  New  England  soon  counted  people  by  the 
hundred,  cattle  by  the  thousand,  worldly  goods  and  sup- 
plies by  the  shipload.  In  the  twelve  years  subsequent  to 
1628  no  less  than  two  hundred  vessels  brought  emigrants, 
cattle,  property.  As  early  as  1634,  four  thousand  in- 
habitants were  grouped  in  about  twenty  towns  and 
villages  near  Boston,  with  not  less  than  fifteen  hundred 
head  of  cattle  grazing  in  the  fields  and  four  thousand 
goats  browsing  on  the  hillsides.  By  1640,  there  were  in 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  alone  sixteen  thousand 
people.  Thriving  and  populous  towns  had  sprung  up 
along  the  Connecticut  River,  around  New  Haven,  in 
Central  Massachusetts,  while  others  only  less  populous 
were  located  on  Rhode  Island,  at  Providence,  and  in 
what  is  now  New  Hampshire  and  Maine.  The  significant 
fact  is  not  alone  the  great  number  of  people  who  came 
and  the  extent  of  their  worldly  possessions;  the  area  of 
the  land  they  preempted  and  the  extent  of  it  they  were 
able  to  utilize  is  scarcely  less  remarkable.  In  twelve 
years  the  new  colonies  became  so  numerous  and  powerful 
that  the  combined  influence  of  the  French,  the  Dutch, 
the  Indians  was  seen  to  be  clearly  unable  to  make  head- 
way against  them.  The  English  language,  English  law 
and  institutions  became  paramount  on  the  soil  of  North 
America. 

As  the  Pilgrim  colony  was  the  first  to  seek  a  home  in 
the  New  World,  so  this  great  exodus  of  the  Puritans  to 
America  was  the  decisive  and  final  step  in  its  preemption 
for  an  English  speaking  nation.  They  came  as  literally 
complete  communities,  already  possessed  of  all  classes, 


172  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

kinds,  and  sorts  of  people.  Administrators,  lawyers, 
doctors,  clergy  are  well  known  to  have  come,  but  there 
were  also  farmers  familiar  with  the  soil,  craftsmen  to 
produce  the  necessary  articles  of  husbandry  and  to  do 
blacksmithing  and  iron  work,  artisans  capable  of  under- 
taking most  of  the  simple  processes  of  manufacturing. 
Industry  in  any  proper  sense  or  manufacturing  for  ex- 
port they  could  hardly  attempt  for  generations,  but  the 
new  communities  had  been  gathered  together  with  a 
foresight,  which  made  them  ready  to  perform  any  task 
then  regarded  by  Englishmen  of  that  period  as  essential 
to  life  and  happiness.  Where  at  Plymouth,  Fuller,  the 
doctor,  was  the  only  one  with  professional  training  and 
he  none  too  well  educated  as  a  doctor,  even  for  that  day, 
the  professional  men  in  Massachusetts  were  soon  num- 
bered by  the  score.  Alden  was  the  only  man  at  Plym- 
outh who  really  answered  the  description  of  mechanic, 
and  he  was  at  best  no  more  than  a  cooper,  and  was  quite 
incapable  of  undertaking  the  finer  types  of  iron  work. 
In  Boston  there  were  many  able  to  perform  most  of  the 
essential  processes  of  blacksmithing  and  forging. 

We  cannot  be  quite  sure  but  Brewster  seems  to  have 
been  the  only  Pilgrim  with  a  college  career  and  he  did  not 
receive  a  degree,  whereas  in  the  first  shiploads  that  came 
to  Boston  were  many  university  men,  and  by  1639  about 
seventy  university  graduates,  many  of  them  men  of  real 
distinction,  are  known  to  have  been  in  New  England. 
In  1636  Harvard  College  was  founded,  at  a  time  when  it 
is  probable  that  at  Plymouth  children  were  still  being 
taught  by  Elder  Brewster  and  some  of  the  women,  and 
taught  nothing  beyond  the  rudiments.  Strong  per- 
sonalities, rare  at  Plymouth,  soon  became  numerous  in 
the  Puritan  colonies.     John  Cotton,  Roger  Williams, 


New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  1627-1657     173 

John  Davenport,  Thomas  Hooker,  John  Eliot,  were  all 
ministers  of  more  commanding  ability,  magnetism,  and 
influence  than  any  of  the  clergymen  the  Pilgrims  were 
able  to  attract,  while  Winthrop,  Dudley,  Eaton,  and 
Endicott  were  only  a  few  of  many  laymen  able  to  com- 
mand respect  by  their  intelligence  and  grasp  of  legal  and 
administrative  issues.  Indeed,  more  definite  constitu- 
tional progress  was  made  at  Massachusetts  Bay  in  four 
years  than  at  Plymouth  in  twenty.  The  size  of  the 
colony  alone  forced  the  development  of  political  institu- 
tions at  Boston  and  brought  to  the  fore  instantly  prob- 
lems which  the  small  size  of  Plymouth  allowed  to  remain 
dormant  for  decades. 

The  effect  of  the  expansion  of  New  England  upon  New 
Plymouth  was  striking.  Until  1630,  the  Pilgrim  settle- 
ment had  been  the  one  stable  and  prominent  colony  along 
the  coast,  the  one  reliance  of  the  many  factories,  where  a 
few  adventurers  with  perhaps  a  score  of  indented  serv- 
ants were  seeking  to  collect  furs  or  to  dry  fish.  To  Plym- 
outh all  these  had  looked  for  protection,  for  guidance, 
and,  what  was  still  more  difficult  for  the  Pilgrims  to  pro- 
vide, for  supplies  of  food,  of  goods  to  trade  with  the 
Indians,  and  for  guns  and  powder.  So  rapid  was  the 
change  that  within  a  year  or  two  after  the  founding  of 
Boston,  New  Plymouth  found  itself  no  longer  a  leader 
and  scarcely  an  equal,  already  pushed  somewhat  to  one 
side.  Ten  years  later  it  was  the  smallest  and  least  power- 
ful of  a  "congregation  of  plantations/'  most  of  which 
already  deserved  the  name  of  states,  and  the  wealth, 
numbers,  and  ability  of  each  of  which  were  far  greater 
than  the  Pilgrims  ever  dreamed  of  possessing.  One  would 
have  expected  this  disparity  to  have  awakened  real 
jealousy  and  discontent  at  Plymouth.    While  we  find 


174  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Bradford,  Winslow,  and  Prence  insisting  upon  due  re- 
spect and  theoretical  equality  in  the  various  colonial 
councils,  we  find  them  all  rejoicing  at  such  growth  and 
displaying  genuine  satisfaction  that  they  themselves 
had  been  its  cause. 

The  history  of  New  England  is  not  a  part  of  the  sub- 
ject of  this  book.  We  are  concerned  only  with  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Pilgrims  on  the  other  new  New  England 
colonies,  and  with  the  reciprocal  influence  of  the  newer 
colonies  on  the  Pilgrims  themselves.  In  a  sense  the  re- 
mainder of  our  study  will  be  concerned  with  this  inter- 
action and  reaction,  but  it  may  be  well  to  indicate  here 
that  the  direct  influence  of  the  Pilgrims  on  the  other 
New  England  colonies  and  upon  their  institutions  after 
1630  was  slight,  though  perhaps  far  from  negligible.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  influence  of  Boston  upon  Plymouth 
was  very  great,  gaining  in  importance  as  the  century  con- 
tinued. Indisputably,  the  tendency  was  for  the  larger, 
abler,  more  wealthy,  and  better  organized  unit  to  impose 
insensibly  and  unconsciously  something  of  its  methods  of 
thought  and  procedure  upon  the  smaller,  weaker,  and 
less  wealthy  community.  The  loss  of  political  independ- 
ence by  New  Plymouth  in  169 1  was  after  all  only  the 
official  recognition  of  a  gradual  absorption  of  the  colony 
into  Massachusetts  Bay  which  became  clearer  and 
clearer  after  the  death  of  Brewster  and  Bradford.  It 
was  not  exactly  that  the  authorities  at  Boston  set  out  to 
influence  New  Plymouth  or  felt  that  conquest,  eco- 
nomic, social,  or  ecclesiastical  was  desirable,  but  the 
characteristic  differences  between  the  smaller  and  the 
larger  units,  which  were  so  clear  in  1630,  began  in  the 
decades  after  1650  gradually  to  disappear.  Something 
must  presently  be  said  as  to  the  claim  frequently  made 


New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  1627-16 57     175 

that  the  church  organization  of  the  other  New  England 
colonies  was  adopted  or  adapted  from  the  organization  v 
at  Plymouth.  Here  in  all  probability  the  Pilgrim  idea 
predominated.  The  resultant  unit,  the  Massachusetts 
of  the  Revolution,  was  neither  Puritan  nor  Pilgrim,  but  a 
fusing  of  the  two. 

The  founding  of  Boston  at  once  changed  beyond  all 
recognition  the  problems  of  defense,  of  subsistence,  and 
of  profit  at  Plymouth.  The  size  and  importance  of  the 
Bay  Colony  made  the  problem  of  defense  for  evermore 
subsidiary  and  unimportant.  As  for  subsistence,  there 
was  now  always  within  easy  reach  food  and  European 
supplies  more  than  sufficient  to  meet  any  possible  de- 
mands of  the  Pilgrims.  Starvation  and  want  became 
impossible.  Indeed,  so  much  greater  were  the  resources  * 
of  the  Bay  Colony  that  the  Pilgrims  might  easily  have 
drawn  from  it  luxuries  in  an  overabundance  had  they 
been  inclined  or  able.  There  was  again  created  at  once 
at  their  door  a  market  for  what  the  Pilgrims  themselves 
had  to  sell  and  a  source  of  supply  for  what  they  wished  to 
buy.  The  dependence  of  Plymouth  on  England  was 
practically  ended  and  the  failure  of  one  voyage  or  the 
miscarriage  of  plans  could  no  longer  have  serious  results. 

Very  soon  indeed  an  active  interchange  of  visits  and 
trade  sprang  up  between  Plymouth  and  the  Bay  Colony 
towns.1    The  relations  between  the  two  were  dominated 

1  The  evidence  for  the  extent  and  character  of  the  relations  of 
the  Pilgrims  with  the  other  New  England  colonies  is  more  frag- 
mentary, casual,  and  scattered  than  we  could  wish,  but  of  itself, 
considering  the  extraordinary  fulness  of  the  records  of  the  Bay 
Colony,  must  indicate  a  connection  by  no  means  extensive,  regular, 
or  systematic.  This  is  precisely  what  we  might  expect  from  the- 
rigid  "separatism"  attempted  at  Plymouth  and  the  anxiety  there 
to  maintain  absolute  equality  and  independence  with  the  newer 


176  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

by  the  spirit  of  cooperation  between  brothers  and  equals. 
There  was  a  certain  amount  of  dispute  and  bickering 
over  boundaries  and  over  fishing  rights  at  Cape  Ann  and 
in  Maine,  but  on  the  whole  the  Pilgrims  had  little  to  com- 
plain of  in  the  treatment  accorded  them  by  the  new- 
comers. Winthrop  and  Dudley  manifested  the  utmost 
respect  for  Bradford's  counsel  and  advice,  and  Bradford 
was  not  slow  himself  to  call  upon  Winthrop  for  legal 
suggestion  in  the  case  of  Billington,  who  was  accused  of 
murder  and  was  eventually  executed.  Fuller  was  sent 
to  aid  the  sick  at  Salem  in  1628-1629  and  the  Pilgrims  on 
occasion  received  aid  in  dealing  with  undesirable  char- 
acters, and,  on  occasion,  gave  it.  Morton  of  Merrimount 
reappeared;  Sir  Christopher  Gardner  and  Samuel 
Gorton  were  dealt  with  by  cooperative  action.  A  brisk 
trade  in  cattle  very  soon  sprang  up  and  the  purchase  in 
Boston  by  the  Pilgrims  of  European  goods,  paid  for  in 
cattle  and  grain.  Winslow  seems  to  have  developed 
something  like  a  business  in  pasturing  cattle  and  swine, 
sent  down  cross  country  from  Boston.  Before  long  the 
Pilgrims  were  paying  merchants  in  England  with  bills  of 
exchange  drawn  on  Boston.  As  the  years  went  on  this 
method  of  exchange  became  more  and  more  common. 
Indeed,  from  the  first  travel  between  the  various  little 
groups  in  New  England  had  been  active.  Many  of  the 
first  fur-trading  groups  visited  Plymouth  and  the  Pil- 
grims themselves  looked  in  during  the  first  year  or  two 

but  stronger  colonies.  Bradford  tells  us  a  good  deal  in  a  casual 
way  and  something  more  can  be  gleaned  from  the  letters  of  Brad- 
ford and  Winslow  to  Winthrop  in  the  Winthrop  Papers,  printed 
in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  4th  Series,  VI,  156-184.  The  records 
and  histories  of  the  Bay  Colony  itself  are  singularly  lacking  in 
references  to  Plymouth. 


ELIZABETH   PADDY   WENSLEY 


New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  162J-165J     177 

upon  all  of  the  settlements  on  the  New  England  coast. 
As  soon  as  the  Bay  Colony  was  founded  various  mem- 
bers of  both  began  changing  residence.  There  was  the 
whole  wilderness  to  choose  from,  so  that  a  man,  dis- 
satisfied with  the  land,  water,  woods,  or  companions  in 
one  place,  found  it  a  simple  matter  to  transport  himself 
and  his  goods  to  another.  The  population  was  really  % 
much  more  fluid  in  early  New  England  than  we  com- 
monly credit.  A  good  many  men  were  born  in  Plymouth, 
grew  up  in  Boston  or  Lynn,  lived  a  while  in  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  or  New  York,  paid  a  visit  to  Virginia,  and 
died  somewhere  else. 

The  movement  which  founded  New  England  was 
distinctly  and  decidedly  one  of  immigration  on  a  large 
scale,  and  was  characterized  by  the  movement  of  large, 
groups  of  people  rather  than  of  individuals.  Whole 
communities  arose  in  England  and  transplanted  them- 
selves bodily  with  such  of  their  possessions  as  could  be 
moved.  Towns,  already  settled  and  organized  near 
Boston,  grew  dissatisfied  and  moved  themselves  and 
their  belongings  to  the  Connecticut  River  Valley.  Noth- 
ing short  of  this  movement  of  great  masses  of  people  and 
the  resort  to  them  in  a  continual  stream  of  smaller 
groups  could  have  created  so  rapidly  such  considerable 
colonies.  Of  this  type  of  movement  nearly  all  the  New 
England  colonies  except  Plymouth  were  the  result. 
Even  Rhode  Island  grew  faster  in  numbers  than  Plym- 
outh, which  to  the  end  was  primarily  the  result  of  the 
slow,  natural  growth  of  a  population,  which  came  in  the 
first  years,  and  of  the  slow  development  of  the  natural 
resources  of  the  district  by  the  labor  of  its  first  comers. 
The  original  investment  in  money  and  goods  was  cal- 
culated in  1627  at  about  £7000,  and  after  1630  there  was 


178  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

only  a  very  gradual  accession  of  people  or  of  capital. 
Plymouth  was  the  result  of  the  unremitting  toil  of  a  small 
group  of  people  upon  a  definite  location.  Unquestion- 
ably, it  was  an  economic  success,  a  fact  regarding  which 
more  will  be  said  presently,  but  the  rate  of  growth  in 
population  and  in  wealth,  in  the  increased  acreage  of 
farms  and  in  the  size  of  the  fur  trade  could  not  be  greater 
without  the  accession  of  large  numers  of  people.  Ship- 
load after  shipload  came  from  England  and  settled  else- 
where. Why  did  these  immigrants  not  come  to  Plym- 
outh? This  is  perhaps  the  most  fundamental  and 
essential  inquiry  in  Pilgrim  history.  Why  should  only 
individuals  have  resorted  to  Plymouth?  *  Why  should 
the  little  body  of  men  and  women  who  began  the  colony 
have  been  the  only  large  group  of  settlers,  and  the  men 
and  women  of  1691,  with  few  exceptions,  people  of  the 
second  generation,  themselves  born  in  America?  The 
inquiry  is  by  no  means  simple,  and  contains  the  secret  of 
the  history  of  the  colony  after  1630. 

The  first  fact  to  emphasize — though  perhaps  not  neces- 
sarily the  most  important  in  answer  to  this  question — is 
the  alteration  of  the  strategic  position  of  Plymouth  by 

1  This  distinction  should  not  be  exaggerated  into  the  statement, 
that  there  was  no  emigration  to  Plymouth.  There  were  always 
a  considerable  number  of  newcomers  in  the  colony,  but  the  ma- 
jority did  not  remain  there,  migrating  more  or  less  promptly  to 
Boston  or  Connecticut,  less  commonly  to  Rhode  Island.  In  the 
western  parts  of  the  patent,  thriving  towns  grew  up  but  were 
founded  usually  by  settlers  from  the  Bay  Colony  who  introduced 
Puritan  ideas  and  institutions.  The  Pilgrims  looked  at  them 
askance,  for  they  truly  saw  them  to  be  aliens  whose  increase 
would  endanger  the  predominance  of  the  town  of  Plymouth,  if 
not  the  perpetuation  of  the  ideas  for  which  they  had  already 
sacrificed  so  much. 


New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  1627- 1657     179 

the  expansion  of  New  England.  Its  economic  oppor- 
tunities were  not  comparable  after  1630  with  those  to  be 
found  elsewhere.  It  occupied  no  strategic  position  for 
trading,  for  agriculture,  or  for  communication.  The 
location  had  been  selected  without  relation  to  the  future 
development  of  the  country  and  to  the  part  which  the 
colony  might  play  in  it.  Indeed,  the  Pilgrims  were  at 
first  seeking  seclusion  and  hoped  to  locate  at  a  distance 
from  other  colonies,  on  a  spot  which  others  would  not 
wish  to  utilize;  and,  though  at  first  in  a  hurry  to  find  some 
place  to  winter,  did  not  later,  when  they  could  easily 
have  done  so,  move  the  settlement  to  some  better  loca- 
tion. Once  more  we  find  the  clue  in  the  original  plan  of 
founding  a  colony  to  be  maintained  from  England  with 
the  proceeds  of  the  fish,  furs,  and  lumber  sent  back  from 
America.  No  great  accession  of  people  was  expected  or 
desired.  Agriculture  on  a  large  scale  was  not  contem- 
plated until  the  colony  was  already  deeply  rooted. 
Plymouth  itself  had  been  selected  chiefly  because  the 
first  comers  were  too  few  and  too  weak  to  clear  a  large 
acreage  of  new  land.  Its  fields  were  for  that  very  reason 
"old  land."  The  soil,  never  perhaps  very  fertile,  had 
been  exhausted  by  constant  cropping  and  only  by  regular 
and  perhaps  excessive  fertilization  could  be  made  to 
yield  at  all.  Around  Plymouth  itself  there  was  abundant 
good  water,  but  the  rest  of  the  land  granted  by  the 
patent  was  too  level  to  drain  well,  and  there  were  in 
consequeifce  a  good  many  marshes  and  bogs,  as  well  as 
a  goodly  area  of  sand.  There  was  too  much  better  land 
elsewhere  in  New  England  for  agriculturists  to  seek 
Plymouth  in  great  numbers. 

For  their  first  purposes  the  harbor  had  seemed  ex- 
cellent and  strategically  located.     They  had  expected 


1 80  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

to  use  nothing  larger  than  small  sailing  ships  of  from 
thirty  to  eighty  tons  and  for  such  craft  Plymouth  har- 
bor was  deep  enough  and  large  enough.  But  it  was  too 
shallow  and  too  small  to  be  used  as  a  rendevous  for  fishing 
or  trading  fleets  and  never  could  become  an  emporium  for 
trade  with  England  or  with  the  Atlantic  Coast.  Nor 
was  it  located  strategically  in  relation  to  the  supply  of 
fish  and  fur  after  1640.  The  Indian  population  of 
Massachusetts  had  been  sadly  decimated  in  161 7  and 
the  gatherers  of  furs  were  few;  the  fur-bearing  animals 
themselves  had  never  been  numerous  and  a  decade  of 
constant  hunting  between  1620  and  1630  had  depop- 
ulated the  woods;  and  the  newer  colonies  occupied  better 
positions  than  Plymouth  for  the  control  of  such  fur- 
trade  as  there  was  left.  The  Pilgrims  were  at  once 
thrown  back  upon  their  fishing  station  at  Cape  Ann  and 
upon  the  fur-trading  station  in  Maine.  They  were  now 
unable  to  export  to  England  from  their  own  immediate 
vicinity,  and  other  colonies  were  better  placed  than  they 
for  the  trade  of  the  Grand  Banks  and  of  the  Maine  coast. 
Nor  was  Plymouth  on  the  natural  line  of  communica- 
tions which  emigration  itself  from  one  spot  to  another 
could  follow.  The  Charles  River  valley  was  the  true  road 
to  the  interior  of  Massachusetts  and  Boston  controlled 
it.  The  Merrimac  valley  was  the  true  road  to  the  interior 
of  northern  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  and 
Salem  and  Newburyport  controlled  it.  The  direct  road 
between  the  Charles  River  valley  and  Narragansett  Bay 
passed  Plymouth  by.  The  colony  was  therefore  unable  to 
benefit  from  the  passage  of  settlers  elsewhere,  to  serve  as 
an  outlet  for  their  trade,  or  as  a  rendezvous  for  ships 
directed  to  them.  Nor  must  the  limited  area  assigned  by 
the  patent  of  1630  be  forgotten.    There  was  not  within 


New  Plymouth  in  New  England,  1627-16 57     181 

its  limits  room  for  any  considerable  number  of  people, 
nor  within  the  whole  district  enough  arable  land  of  good 
quality  to  have  made  possible  the  reception  at  Plym- 
outh of  such  a  colony  as  Hooker's,  or  even  the  ad- 
dition of  such  a  group  as  Williams  soon  gathered  at 
Providence. 

The  extent  of  the  disadvantages  of  the  first  site  had 
become  clear  to  Standish  and  Alden  as  early  as  163 1  and 
they  had  in  consequence  removed  to  more  fertile  land  at 
Duxbury,  in  the  teeth  of  strenuous  opposition  from  their 
associates.  They  carried  with  them  Brewster's  two 
children,  Collier,  already  a  wealthy  man,  and  others  of 
importance.  Brewster  himself  soon  followed  them.  The 
General  Court  decreed  in  the  following  year  that  Plym- 
outh should  always  be  the  seat  of  Government  and  that 
the  Governor  should  reside  there,  but  the  removals  and 
defections  continued.  Bradford  stood  stoutly  for  the 
maintenance  of  Church  and  Government  at  Plymouth 
and  for  the  time  prevailed.  But  year  by  year  the  agita- 
tion was  renewed;  and  finally  in  1644,  after  long  and  u 
vehement  debates,  the  majority  voted  to  abandon  the 
old  site  altogether  and  move  to  Nauset.  Bradford, 
though  outvoted,  though  deprived  of  the  support  of  the 
other  leaders  already  themselves  deserters,  determined 
to  end  his  days  at  Plymouth,  if  he  lived  there  alone. 
Thereupon,  a  goodly  number  decided  to  abide  with  him. 
The  remainder,  led  by  several  men  of  prominence,  in- 
cluding Prence,  Bradford's  real  successor,  did  leave 
Plymouth  and  founded  the  town  of  Eastham,  upon 
a  location  fully  as  disadvantageous  as  Plymouth  ex- 
cept for  the  quality  of  the  soil.  Of  the  leaders, 
Bradford  and  Howland  alone  were  left  in  the  first 
settlement.    Bradford's  sorrow  over  this  exodus  found 


182  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

expression  in  a  poem,  "A  Word  to  Plymouth,"  written 
in  1654. 

"O  Poor  Plymouth,  how  dost  thou  moan, 
Thy  children  are  all  from  thee  gone, 
And  left  thou  art  in  widow's  state, 
Poor,  helpless,  sad  and  desolate." 

This  lack  of  strategic  position — the  immediate  result  of 
the  founding  of  the  other  New  England  colonies — was 
not  the  most  important  or  most  significant  fact  in  ex- 
plaining the  failure  of  immigrants  to  settle  at  Plymouth 
itself  or  within  the  limits  of  the  colony.  The  true  reasons 
were  ecclesiastical,  governmental,  economic,  and  social, 
and  deserve  treatment  at  considerable  length. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  DOMINANT  NOTE  AT  PLYMOUTH 

The  ecclesiastical  ideas  of  the  Pilgrims  are  the  key  to 
the  comprehension  of  their  history  and  can  be  properly 
understood  only  in  the  light  of  the  history  of  dissent  in 
England  both  before  and  after  the  Pilgrim  exodus.  They 
alone  explain  the  fundamental  problems  in  Pilgrim  an- 
nals— the  emigration  to  Holland  and  to  America;  the 
aloofness  of  Plymouth  from  the  other  New  England 
colonies;  the  failure  of  large  bodies  of  new  immigrants  to 
locate  under  the  Pilgrim  patent;  the  peculiar  features  of 
political,  social,  and  economic  life;  the  inclusion  of  Plym- 
outh within  Massachusetts  in  1691.  The  dominant 
note  of  Plymouth  was  struck  by  the  Church  and  not  by 
the  State.  There  was  to  be  a  commonwealth  founded 
upon  "God's  Ordinances"  and  not  upon  the  devices  of 
men.  The  Pilgrims  were  not  merely  Separatists  but  a 
peculiar  variety  of  Separatists.  The  truth  seems  to  be 
that  at  the  time  they  left  England  they  represented  the 
radical  wing  of  English  Protestant  dissent.  Immediately 
after  their  exodus,  both  wings  of  the  dissenting  party 
ceased  to  develop  along  the  lines  they  had  chosen  and 
espoused  ideas  either  more  conservative  or  more  radical 
than  theirs.  The  object  of  the  Pilgrims  was  in  fact  to 
crystallize  and  perpetuate  in  the  New  World  what  we 
now  see  to  have  been  a  transitional  phase  of  the  Puritan 
movement  in  England. 

It  is  only  in  recent  years  that  the  necessary  evidence 
has  come  to  light  for  the  study  of  this  first  phase  of  the 

183 


184  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Puritan  movement.1  Its  first  effective  form  was  the 
Classis  Movement  of  1582  to  1592.  They  felt  that  the 
true  interpretation  of  primitive  Christianity  had  then 
been  found  and  vested  the  governmental  authority  in 
the  Classis  of  ministers,  which  was  to  define  doctrine,  to 
perform  various  acts  of  discipline,  to  choose  and  con- 
secrate new  ministers,  to  appoint  them  to  their  places, 
and  the  like.  The  Classis  on  the  whole  assumed  the 
duties  which  the  Bishops  had  performed,  but  for  the 
laity  there  was  as  little  place  as  in  Episcopacy.  If  they 
had  been  ruled,  directed,  and  instructed  by  the  Bishops, 
they  were  to  be  none  the  less  subordinate  to  the  Classis. 
While  there  was  in  these  early  years  a  very  general  feeling 
that  the  Episcopacy  was  without  warrant  of  Scripture 
and  was  therefore  to  be  denounced  and  supplanted,  there 
was  also  an  almost  universal  belief  that  the  Church  could 
and  should  be  transformed  rather  than  destroyed.  The 
method  which  seems  to  have  met  most  favor  was  the 
vesting  of  Episcopal  authority  in  the  Classis,  of  which  the 
Bishop  should  become  a  fellow  member  on  terms  of 
substantial  equality  with  the  ministers.  A  variety  of 
suggestions  and  changes  were  considered  which  made 
him  something  better  than  an  equal,  but  in  general  the 
Classis,  and  not  the  Bishop,  was  to  exercise  the  authority. 
The  characteristic  element  in  this  phase  of  the  Puritan 
movement  lay  however  in  the  retention,  substantially 
intact,  of  the  existing  Church  organization  and  of  the 
great  bulk  of  the  existing  observances  and  ritual.  Stress 
was  laid  upon  the  change  or  toleration  of  "things  in- 

1  Usher,  R.  G.,  Presbyterian  Movement  in  the  Reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  London,  1905;  and  Reconstruction  of  the  English  Church, 
2  vols.  New  York  and  London,  1910;  Burrage,  C,  Early  English 
Dissenters,  2  vols.,  Cambridge,  191 2. 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  185 

different,"  such  as  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  Baptism,  the 
use  of  the  ring  in  marriage,  the  wearing  of  the  surplice,  as 
changes  highly  desirable  but  perhaps  not  vital.  For 
this  transformation  of  Church  government  and  for  this 
change  of  practice  and  doctrine,  the  Puritan  movement 
agitated  with  more  or  less  energy  and  directness  from 
about  1582  to  1604,  when  this  phase  of  the  movement 
culminated  in  the  presentation  of  the  Puritan  cause  at  the 
Hampton  Court  Conference. 

This  definition  of  aims  by  the  bulk  of  the  Puritan 
party  promptly  led  to  the  espousal  of  more  radical  ideas 
by  the  minority,  which  itself  split  up  into  several  groups 
led  by  Brown,  Ainsworth,  Johnson  and  others.  Most  of 
them  urged  the  rejection  of  Bishops  altogether  and  the 
separation  from  the  Church  as  a  thing  unworthy  and 
unclean.  There  should  be  no  paltering  or  compromising 
with  the  heritage  of  Popes.  It  should  all  be  swept  away 
and  something  better  put  in  its  place.  The  new  Church 
government  espoused  by  the  radicals  made  place  for  the 
opinions  of  the  laity  in  the  choice  of  the  ministers  and 
even  in  the  formulation  of  the  creed,  a  fact  of  the  utmost 
consequence.  To  these  radical  groups  the  Scrooby 
Church  belonged.  It  was,  however,  organized  at  a  period 
when  many  of  these  radicals  had  already  left  England  for 
Holland  and  had  separated  not  only  from  the  Church  but 
from  the  main  body  of  the  Puritans  as  well.  It  was  a 
time  moreover  when  the  majority  of  the  Puritans  were 
to  be  tested  for  the  staunchness  of  their  faith,  and  when 
they  were  about,  as  the  Pilgrims  themselves  would  have 
said,  to  sell  their  Master  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver  and  be 
branded  with  the  mark  of  the  Beast. 

In  1 604- 1 605,  Archbishop  Bancroft  forced  the  issue 
of  separation  from  the  Church  or  conformity  to  its  ob- 


1 86  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

servances  upon  the  reluctant  Puritans.  Those  who 
would  not  conform  were  to  be  deprived  of  their  benefices 
and  there  should  be  little  if  any  toleration  of  tender  con- 
sciences. Thus  went  forth  the  fiat.  There  is  no  fact  in 
Pilgrim  annals  so  important  as  the  conformity  of  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  Puritan  party  at  this 
time.  They  did  accept  the  laws  and  observances  of  the 
Established  Church.  They  found  that  they  preferred  to 
remain  within  it,  even  at  some  little  cost,  rather  than  to 
leave  it.  The  few  who  were  deprived,  the  more  con- 
siderable number  who  were  threatened  with  deprivation, 
nearly  all  conformed  within  three  years,  read  the  prayer- 
book,  wore  the  surplice,  followed  the  observances  of  the 
Church,  and  retained  their  benefices.  The  Puritan 
movement  in  England  therefore  continued  as  a  movement 
within  the  Church  and  the  gulf  between  them  and  the 
Pilgrims  was  already  in  1608  impassable,  for  the  Pilgrims 
regarded  as  the  very  foundation  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
the  separation  from  the  English  Church.  As  time  went 
on  the  main  body  of  the  Puritans  came  to  feel  an  attach- 
ment for  the  Established  Church  just  as  the  Pilgrim  de- 
testation of  it  was  intensified;  came  to  possess  a  real  ap- 
proval of  its  position,  doctrine,  and  observances  as  the 
Pilgrim  disapproval  became  more  and  more  vehement. 
Those  who  came  to  New  England  in  1630  and  after  from 
the  main  body  of  the  Puritans  were  not  men  who  could 
sympathize  with  the  views  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Church 
government  or  whom  the  Pilgrims  on  their  own  part  were 
willing  to  see  settle  at  Plymouth. 

The  minority  of  the  Puritan  party  had  already  by 
1608  split  up  into  a  number  of  groups,  some  of  which  were 
already  abroad,  and  all  of  which  continued  to  develop 
doctrinal  ideas  which  had  not  been  approved,  and  in  the 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  187 

majority  of  instances  not  even  considered,  by  the  Eng- 
lish parties  in  the  decade  1595  to  1605,  in  which  the 
Scrooby  Church  seems  to  have  had  its  origin.  One  and 
all  these  radicals  maintained  an  entire  separation  from 
the  English  Church.  With  practical  unanimity  they 
accorded  the  laity  a  share  in  Church  government  and 
discipline,  and  in  particular  in  the  choice  of  the  ministry 
gave  them  voice.  But,  while  the  Pilgrims  clung  with  an 
almost  passionate  devotion  to  the  essentially  negative 
doctrinal  platform  of  the  years  1590  and  1605,  all  other 
English  sects,  who  could  bring  themselves  to  separate 
from  the  Church,  proceeded  to  divagate  in  doctrine  from 
the  Church  itself,  from  the  main  body  of  the  Puritan 
party  still  in  England,  and  from  their  own  earlier  doc- 
trinal ideas.  Questions  of  Baptism  by  immersion,  the 
nature  of  the  Eucharist,  and  a  number  of  other  issues  of 
the  first  importance  and  complexity  kept  these  little 
groups  constantly  in  turmoil  and  dissension.  Already 
before  the  Pilgrims  reached  Leyden,  the  earlier  doctrinal 
position  was  assailed  in  the  English  Churches  at  Amster- 
dam and  the  change  continued  apace  in  the  years  the 
Pilgrims  were  in  Holland.  Indeed,  they  left  Amsterdam 
to  escape  contamination  and  eventually  departed  for 
New  England  that  they  might  be  alone  to  develop  their 
own  particular  ideas,  choosing  the  wilderness  because  it 
seemed  impossible  to  find  anywhere  in  England  or  Hol- 
land a  body  of  people  who  thought  exactly  as  they  did. 
The  potent  fact  is  that  none  of  those  reaching  the  New 
World  after  1620  professed  that  precise  variety  of  dissent 
which  the  Pilgrims  themselves  were  seeking  to  crystallize 
and  perpetuate.  The  Pilgrims  represented  a  transitional 
phase  of  the  great  Protestant  movement,  one  whose 
duration  in  England  itself  was  short,  and  they  found 


V 


1 88  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

themselves  isolated,  stranded,  pushed  to  one  side  by  the 
subsequent  development  of  Protestantism  both  in  Eng- 
land and  in  America.  They  maintained  unflinchingly  at 
Plymouth  an  ideal  which  had  long  ceased  to  have  a 
numerous  following  in  England.  Here  is  the  secret  of 
that  lack  of  numerical  growth  at  Plymouth:  there  was  no 
normal  constituency  in  England  or  America  from  which 
they  could  draw  adherents.  Other  religious  malcontents 
found  there  no  congenial  atmosphere.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  were  plenty  of  colonies  willing  to  absorb  the 
Pilgrims'  own  dissenters. 

The  Pilgrims  seem  to  have  caught  up  a  passing  phase 
of  the  religious  transition  in  England  at  a  time  when 
events  were  moving  rapidly.  They  had  found  them- 
selves at  Scrooby  practically  isolated  from  other  Puritan 
bodies  and  had  therefore  continued  the  primary  impulse 
without  subsequent  modification  by  the  thought  and 
controversy  which  changed  so  greatly  the  other  Puritan 
bodies.  They  were  not  part  of  the  Puritan  movement 
and  disliked  it.  When  they  found  at  Amsterdam  that 
contact  with  the  English  Churches  there  was  likely  to 
modify  their  ideas,  they  fled.  They  developed  at  Leyden 
quite  alone  and  again  at  Plymouth  quite  alone.  They 
had  thus  nourished  in  isolation  a  position  which  was 
itself  a  negation,  nothing  more  than  an  uncompromising 
hostility  to  the  Established  Church  of  England  and  to  the 
ordination  of  Bishops.  They  had  also  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  certain  practices  observed  in  England  must 
not  be  performed,  but  otherwise  in  discipline,  doctrine, 
and  observances,  they  waited  for  further  illumination. 
Their  position  was  at  once  too  uncompromising  and  too 
fluid.  They  had  rejected  the  one  Church  and  declined  to 
accept  the  substitutes. 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  189 

Nor  did  they  occupy  in  America  a  logical  and  defensi- 
ble position.  In  England,  face  to  face  with  an  Estab- 
lished Church,  the  denial  of  its  principles  and  of  its  diving 
authority  was  a  practical  creed,  capable  of  creating  a  tie 
of  association,  but  in  the  New  World,  far  from  Estab- 
lished Churches,  far  from  Bishops  who  were  not  menacing 
them,  who  had  indeed  forgotten  about  them,  it  became 
artificial  and  forced.  Always  a  disruptive  tendency 
rather  than  a  cohesive  force,  it  had  separated  them  from 
the  English  Church  rather  than  established  them  in  a 
position  of  their  own.  It  looked  backward  and  not  for- , 
ward;  it  was  destructive  rather  than  constructive  of  a 
vital  entity,  endowed  with  energy  of  its  own.  For  the 
generation  of  Bradford  the  old  contention  had  real 
meaning,  but  for  the  second  and  third  generations  the 
bond  became  too  weak  to  retain  their  allegiance,  and 
certainly  could  not  provide  attractions  for  others  looking 
for  a  positive  and  not  a  negative  Christianity. 

Nowhere  does  this  isolation  of  the  Pilgrims  reveal  itself 
more  clearly  than  in  their  difficulties  in  finding  a  minister. 
In  accordance  with  the  agreement,  Robinson,  the  pastor, 
had  remained  at  Leyden  and  those  who  sailed  on  the 
Mayflower  had  been  accompanied  by  Elder  Brewster  as 
Teacher.  He  expounded  the  Scriptures  and  held  services 
of  prayer  and  praise,  but  was  forbidden  by  their  previous 
conclusions  to  expound  doctrine,  to  baptize,  or  to  cele- 
brate the  communion.  As  Robinson's  departure  from 
Leyden  was  year  by  year  deferred,  and  as  the  desirability 
of  celebrating  the  "communion  at  Plymouth  became  more 
and  more  obvious,  Brewster  wrote  to  inquire  from 
Robinson  whether  he  might  not  in  the  interim  safely 
perform  this  vital  service  for  the  Pilgrim  community. 
Robinson  had  replied  with  an  unequivocal  negation:  no 


190  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

teacher  might  arrogate  to  himself  the  function  of  a 
minister.1  When  the  news  of  Robinson's  death  in  1625 
dashed  the  hope  so  long  deferred,  it  is  surprising  that 
the  Pilgrims  did  not  exercise  their  power  as  a  Church  to 
call  Brewster  to  the  ministry.  We  know  directly  nothing 
whatever,  but  it  seems  probable  that  Brewster  himself 
opposed  the  step  and  there  was  no  other  Pilgrim  who 
possessed  even  primary  qualifications. 

The  Church  organization  of  the  Pilgrims  was  indeed 
flexible.  They  considered  themselves  possessed  of  the 
power  to  ordain  a  minister  and  to  choose  all  Church 
officers,  to  draw  up  for  themselves  a  creed  and  to  enact 
all  necessary  ecclesiastical  legislation.  They  distin- 
guished sharply,,  however,  between  the  Church  and  the 
congregation.  The  former  consisted  of  those  adults  who 
had  been  accepted  by  the  others  as  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  God  and  able  to  give  testimony  of  their  faith. 
The  congregation  on  the  other  hand  included  all  in- 
habitants who  did  not  decidedly  espouse  some  other 
worship.  The  Church  was  the  governing  and  disciplinary 
body  and  governed  the  rest.  Its  organization  was 
voluntary  and  it  seems  to  have  possessed  at  Scrooby,  at 
Leyden  and  in  the  early  years  at  Plymouth,  no  financial 
organization.  Contributions  were  made  for  the  minister's 
support  at  Plymouth  in  land,  food,  and  clothes,  but  there 
is  no  evidence  that  Brewster  or  any  other  worker  was 
paid  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word  until   1655. 2 

None  the  less  the  Pilgrims  were  nonplussed  to  find  a 

1  Bradford,  History,  200. 

2  S.  S.  Green,  Use  of  the  Voluntary  System  in  the  Maintenance  of 
Ministers  in  the  Colonies  of  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay, 
American  Antiquarian  Society  Proceedings,  April,  1886.  Sep- 
arately printed,  Worcester,  Mass.,  1886. 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  191 

minister.  When  Allerton  went  to  England  on  business  in 
1626-1627,  he  was  to  find  a  clergyman,  but  experienced 
such  difficulties  in  securing  anyone  whose  views  seemed 
to  harmonize  with  theirs,  that  he  finally  brought  back 
with  him  a  man  who  soon  gave  clear  proof  of  insanity. 
Early  in  1629  a  boat  load  of  Pilgrims,  returning  from  a 
trading  expedition,  found  a  Mr.  Ralph  Smith  at  a  strag- 
gling settlement  on  the  coast.  He  had  migrated  from 
England  with  his  family  and  was  much  discontented 
where  he  was,  and,  understanding  that  he  had  once  been 
a  minister,  they  brought  him  to  Plymouth  and  allotted 
him  a  house  and  land.  After  some  months  they  chose  him 
minister.  He  was  an  eminently  good  and  respectable 
man,  but  infinitely  inferior  to  Brewster  and  to  Winslow, 
who  seems  on  occasion  to  have  officiated. 

A  few  years  later  there  came  a  man  of  "many  precious 
parts"  in  the  person  of  Roger  Williams.  He  had  landed 
at  Boston,  where  having  some  words  with  Winthrop  and 
others,  packed  up  his  goods  and  departed.  At  Plymouth 
he  was  well  received;  he  liked  the  people  and  was  liked. 
He  speedily  proved  his  ability  as  a  clergyman  and  was 
called  to  the  ministry.  For  a  while  all  went  well,  but  soon 
he  seems  to  have  taken  it  upon  himself  to  administer 
some  "sharp  admonitions  and  reproofs"  to  the  leaders, 
and  to  have  propounded  some  of  those  opinions  for  which 
he  was  later  expelled  from  Massachusetts  Bay  and  for 
which  he  became  famous  at  Providence.  He  was  "  Godly 
and  zealous"  the  Pilgrims  agreed,  but  "very  unsettled  in 
judgment,"  and  after  a  time  migrated  to  Salem.1  Brad- 
ford charitably  concludes  his  account  in  his  History  with 

1  He  left  behind  him  an  unpaid  debt  to  Fuller,  the  Pilgrim  doc- 
tor, for  professional  services,  which  Fuller  "freely  presented  to 
him"  in  his  will.    Mayflower  Descendant,  I,  28,  1633. 


192  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

the  words,  "He  is  to  be  pitied  and  prayed  for  and  so  I 
shall  leave  the  matter  and  desire  the  learned  to  shew  him 
his  errors  and  reduse  him  into  the  way  of  truth  and  give 
him  a  setled  judgment  and  constancie  in  the  same;  for  I 
hope  he. belongs  to  the  Lord  and  that  he  will  shew  him 
mercie." 

For  some  time  after  Williams'  departure,  they  were 
without  other  ministrations  than  those  of  Smith  and 
finally,  perhaps  growing  tired  of  him,  perhaps  coming  to 
some  difference  of  opinion  with  him,  they  induced  John 
Reynor  to  emigrate  from  England  and  become  their 
clergyman.  After  a  short  trial,  rinding  him  like  his 
predecessor  mediocre  in  ability  and  temperament,  they 
induced  a  really  capable  and  magnetic  personality, 
Charles  Chauncey,  to  come  to  them  from  England.  Un- 
questionably a  learned  and  able  man,  the  very  sort  of  a 
man  they  needed  most  at  Plymouth,  he  at  once  proved, 
like  other  energetic  characters,  to  have  proceeded  in  his 
thinking  in  a  somewhat  "irregular"  direction.  Soon  he 
began  to  preach  the  necessity  of  baptism  by  immersion. 
They  argued  with  him  at  great  length,  loath  to  let  him  go ; 
called  upon  the  Boston  and  Connecticut  clergy  for  assist- 
ance. They  were  quite  willing  that  he  should  hold  such 
views  about  baptism  as  he  wished,  but  he  would  not 
agree  to  stay  with  them,  unless  they  were  willing  to  admit 
that  the  tenet  was  as  essential  as  he  thought  it  to  be. 
He  went  to  Scituate  where  after  a  time  of  prosperity  his 
Church  again  fell  into  controversy  and  dissolved. 
Reynor  stayed  with  the  Plymouth  Church  until  1654, 
when  for  thirteen  years  there  was  at  Plymouth  itself  no 
pastor,  Elder  Cushman  holding  services  as  Brewster  had 
in  the  first  years. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  overemphasize  the  importance 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  193 

of  the  fact  that  the  Plymouth  Church  was  an  attempt  to 
crystallize  a  transitional  step  in  the  development  of 
English  dissent.  Consequently  they  found  themselves 
isolated,  unable  to  increase  their  strength  because  there 
was  no  larger  body  of  believers  from  whom  they  might 
draw  adherents.  So  far  as  they  could  discover  after  1630, 
there  was  not  in  all  England  one  man  of  real  ability 
who  believed  as  they  did,  nor  were  there  any  laymen  of 
real  ability  who  came  to  Plymouth  in  any  number  to 
strengthen  the  Pilgrim  state.  True,  the  ability  and 
commanding  personality  of  Brewster  and  of  Bradford  was 
sufficient  to  maintain  the  original  position  during  their 
lives,  and  to  make  Plymouth  a  decidedly  uncomfortable 
spot  for  able  men  of  different  ecclesiastical  persuasion, 
but  the  result  could  only  be  to  preserve  the  position  dur- 
ing their  lives  to  lose  it  beyond  a  peradventure  at  their 
deaths.  They  bequeathed  both  Church  and  State  to 
men  who  were  intellectually  too  weak  and  too  lacking  in 
magnetism  to  maintain  their  peculiar  ecclesiastical  posi- 
tion against  the  strong  current  of  opinion  in  the  other 
New  England  Churches,  there  exemplified,  as  in  England 
itself,  by  men  of  the  first  caliber. 

Of  Pilgrim  practice  and  belief  aside  from  Church 
government  we  have  comparatively  few  reliable  indica- 
tions. About  Robinson's  ideas  both  before  and  after  the 
exodus,  we  have  the  fullest  possible  details,  but  Robin- 
son's opinions  changed  from  year  to  year  and  exactly 
what  version  of  them  Brewster  taught  at  Plymouth  we 
do  not  know.  Of  the  precise  theological  angle  of  Smith 
and  Reynor  we  know  still  less.  The  first  Church  cov- 
enant of  the  Pilgrims  we  have,  but  it  does  not  greatly 
assist  us.  "In  the  Name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  in 
obedience  to  his  holy  will  and  divine  ordinances.    Wee 


194  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

being  by  the  most  wise  and  good  providence  of  God 
brought  together  in  this  place  and  desirous  to  unite  our 
selves  into  one  congregation  or  church  under  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  our  Head,  that  it  may  be  in  such  sort  as 
becometh  all  those  whom  he  hath  redeemed  and  sanc- 
tifyed  to  himselfe,  wee  doe  hereby  solemnly  and  relig- 
iously (as  in  his  most  holy  presence)  avouch  the  Lord 
Jehovah  the  only  true  God  to  be  our  God  and  the  God  of 
ours  and  doe  promise  and  binde  ourselves  to  walke  in  all 
our  wayes  according  to  the  Rule  of  the  Gospel  and  in  all 
sincere  conformity  to  His  holy  ordinances  and  in  mutuall 
love  to  and  watchfullnesse  over  one  another,  depending 
wholly  and  only  upon  the  Lord  our  God  to  enable  us  by 
his  grace  hereunto."1  No  doubt  the  majority  of  these 
statements  refer  to  Church  government  and  there  is 
certainly  as  far  as  doctrine  is  concerned  nothing  in  it 
explicit.  We  do  know  that  the  Pilgrims  were  stout 
Calvinists  of  a  conservative  angle,  believed  in  predestina- 
tion, and  in  the  doctrine  of  the  elect,  and  in  all  implied 
by  both.2  Brewster  possessed  a  considerable  library, 
chiefly  of  expository  works; 3  several  men  owned  Cahirfs 

1  This  the  First  Church  declared  in  1676  was  the  original  Church 
Covenant,  so  far  as  men  alive  remembered  it  or  notes  or  letters 
could  establish  it.  Plymouth  First  Church  Records,  I,  printed  in 
full  in  Mayflower  Descendant,  V,  214-215. 

2  John  Cotton,  Jr.,  wrote  to  Mather  on  December  11,  1676,  be- 
wailing "  the  power  of  Satan  in  hurrying  soules  to  hell  through  di- 
vine permission."  It  would  seem  that  the  conservatism  of  Robinson 
before  1620  had  not  been  forgotten.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  4th 
Series ,  VIII,  241. 

3  A  careful  reprint  of  the  original  list  is  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc, 
2nd  Series,  III,  261-274.  In  Ibid.,  V,  37-85,  is  a  careful  identifica- 
tion of  these  entries  by  H.  M.  Dexter.  There  were  three  hundred 
and  two  English  books  and  sixty- two  Latin;  ninety-eight  exposi- 
tory, sixty-three  doctrinal,  sixty-nine  practical  religious  books, 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  195 

Institutes,  the  writings  of  St.  Augustine,  and  the  majority 
of  theological  tracts  published  in  England  of  Puritan 
and  Separatist  persuasion  before  1620,  with  some  books 
of  later  date.  Unfortunately,  the  libraries  were  too 
varied  in  character  to  enable  us  to  conclude  anything 
in  regard  to  the  theological  views  of  the  men  who 
owned  them.  Of  their  ideas  regarding  the  Godhead,  the 
Trinity,  the  substances  in  the  communion  (the  word 
eucharist  they  deemed  Popish  and  offensive)  we  know 
nothing.1  While  they  objected  to  the  surplice,  their 
ministers  and  elders  wore  a  black  gown  with  a  white 
band,  after  the  fashion  of  the  French  and  Genevese. 
Winslow  was  imprisoned  in  England  in  1635  for 
marrying  people  by  virtue  of  his  authority  as  mag- 
istrate.2 

We  are  quite  sure  that  they  "called"  their  ministers 
and  made  Fuller,  the  doctor,  deacon,3  but  by  what  pre- 

twenty-four  historical,  thirty-six  "ecclesiastical,"  six  philosophical, 
fourteen  poetical,  fifty-four  miscellaneous.  The  dates  of  publica- 
tion seemed  to  Dr.  Dexter  most  significant:  fully  seventy-five  per 
cent  were  earlier  than  1620,  but  the  remainder  were  published 
in  the  years  between  162 1  and  1643,  every  year  being  represented 
except  1639  and  1642,  and  prove  that  Brewster  continued  to  buy 
books.  There  was  a  treatise  on  timber,  another  on  silk-worms 
(at  Plymouth!),  a  volume  of  George  Wither's  poetry,  Bodin, 
Bacon,  Aristotle,  Machiavelli,  but  no  Shakespeare. 

xIn  1666,  complaint  was  made  to  the  Court  of  the  "horrible 
blasphemy"  "that  Christ  as  God  is  equall  with  the  Father  but 
as  Mediator  the  Father  is  greater  than  hee."  This  is  not  very 
solid  ground  for  deductions  covering  Pilgrim  belief  on  the  Trinity. 
Plymouth  Colony  Records,  IV,  112.  The  Records  to  1650  contain 
nothing  on  such  points. 

2  Bradford,  History,  390-393. 

3  Over  this,  Morton  made  very  merry  in  his  New  English  Canaan 
(Prince  Soc),  297.  They  chose  a  man  "that  long  time  had  bin 
nurst  up  in  the  tender  bosome  of  the  Church;  one  that  had  speciall 


196  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

cise  ceremony  we  do  not  know.  There  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  real  calling  consisted  in  the  trying  test  of 
long  weeks  and  months  of  association,  and  not  in  any 
particular  event.  No  doubt  the  candidate  also  made 
public  confession  of  his  faith,  answered  questions  put 
to  him  by  the  older  men  at  some  stated  and  formal 
meeting,  at  which  his  calling  was  to  be  ratified.  Surely 
their  minds  had  been  made  up  about  the  candidate  before 
the  formal  election.  Undoubtedly  they  judged  his 
efficiency  from  such  information  as  they  had  and  tol- 
erated no  opinions  other  than  their  own.  Previous 
ordination  was  for  them  worthless.  The  laity  were  ad- 
mitted to  fellowship  in  the  Church  only  after  stringent 
tests  in  private  and  in  public.  If  we  can  judge  at  all 
from  what  was  said  in  a  later  generation  when  the  prac- 
tice was  abandoned,  one  qualification  upon  which  they 
rigidly  insisted  was  the  ability  of  the  candidate  to  give 
an  account  of  his  faith  publicly  and  orally,  assuredly  a 
trying  test  for  many  a  good  soul. 

The  religious  meetings  were  held  first  in  the  cabin  of 
the  Mayflower,  probably  throughout  the  first  winter, 
though  the  first  service  was  held  on  shore  in  the  Common 
House  in  March,  162 1.  Then  they  used  the  lowest  story 
of  the  new  fort,  which  they  finished  in  1623,  until  about 
1648,  when  the  first  meeting  house  was  built  at  the  back 
of  Bradford's  garden  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  below  the 
fort.  The  room  or  meeting  house  must  have  been  simple 
in  the  extreme.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  the  use  of  a 
pulpit  at  first;  the  Teacher  or  Minister  probably  stood 
and  his  congregation  sat  around  him  on  stools  or  benches. 

gifts:  hee  could  wright  and  reede;  nay  more:  he  had  tane  the  oath 
of  abjuration  which  is  a  speciall  stepp,  yea  and  a  maine  degree  unto 
preferment." 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  197 

He  prayed  with  his  head  uncovered,  they  stood  with 
bowed  heads,  and  they  all  closed  their  eyes  during  the 
prayer,  a  practice  which  visitors  remarked  as  unusual.1 
For  the  Communion  they  probably  used  a  table,  brought 
from  some  one's  house  perhaps,  though  whether  they 
knelt  to  receive  or  sat  we  have  no  authentic  hint.  Some 
dissenting  bodies  did,  others  did  not.  Baptism  was  per- 
formed in  any  part  of  the  Church  convenient,  from  some 
ordinary  basin  or  dish.  The  use  of  a  particular  vessel 
would  have  seemed  to  them  to  smack  of  the  ceremonies 
of  the  Established  Church.  The  head  of  the  child  or 
adult  was  sprinkled  with  a  little  water  from  the  fingers  of 
the  minister,  who  probably  did  not  touch  the  child  and 
certainly  did  not  make  the  sign  of  the  cross.  They  used 
in  service  the  Geneva  version  of  the  Bible  and  Ains- 
worth's  Psalms,  which  they  sang  in  unison  without  the 
accompaniment  of  any  musical  instrument. 

The  Dutchman,  De  Rasieres,  told  of  their  method  of 
marching  to  service  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  "They 
assemble  by  beat  of  drum,  each  with  his  musket  or  fire- 
lock in  front  of  the  captain's  door;  they  have  their  cloaks 
on  and  place  themselves  in  order  three  abreast  and  are 
led  by  a  sergeant  without  beat  of  drum;  behind  comes  the 
Governor  in  a  long  robe;  beside  him  on  the  right  hand 
comes  the  Preacher  with  his  cloak  on,  and  on  the  left 
hand,  the  Captain  with  his  side-arms  and  cloak  on,  and 
with  a  small  cane  in  his  hand;  and  so  they  march  in 
good  order  and  each  sets  his  arms  down  near  him."  2 
This  was  in  1627.    A  few  years  later  Governor  Winthrop, 

xArber,  Pilgrim  Fathers,  294;  Bradford,  History,  493;  Morton, 
New  English  Canaan,  Prince  Soc,  334.  This  is  a  very  obscure 
point,  however. 

2  Reprinted  in  full  in  Goodwin,  Pilgrim  Republic,  308. 


198  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Pastor  Winslow  of  the  Boston  Church,  and  some  others, 
paid  a  visit  to  Plymouth  and  attended  Church  on  Sunday 
forenoon.  During  the  afternoon  a  further  service  was 
held,  at  which  the  guests  from  Boston  listened  with  such 
composure  as  they  might  to  Roger  Williams,  who  had 
left  them  under  somewhat  strained  circumstances  the 
year  before.  Williams  "propounded"  a  question  in 
Puritan  phrase.  Pastor  Smith  then  "expounded"  it, 
after  which  Williams  "prophesied,"  that  is  to  say, 
preached.  Bradford  spoke  and  was  followed  by  Elder 
Brewster  and  other  Pilgrims.  Winthrop  was  then  in- 
vited to  speak  and  was  followed  by  Pastor  Winslow. 
Deacon  Fuller  then  reminded  the  people  of  the  blessed- 
ness of  giving;  whereupon  Bradford  solemnly  rose, 
proceeded  to  the  Deacon's  seat,  deposited  his  offer- 
ing, and  the  others  in  order  of  prominence  followed 
him. 

In  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  the  Pilgrims  were 
perhaps  not  tolerant,  but  surely  a  great  deal  of  miscon- 
ception has  prevailed  about  their  intolerance,  and  an 
amount  of  praise  has  been  accorded  others  which  they 
do  not  deserve.  Certainly  they  did  not  allow  people  of 
all  shades  of  opinion,  of  all  walks  of  life,  and  of  all  va- 
rieties and  conditions  to  reside  permanently  within  their 
jurisdiction.  In  fact  no  man  or  woman  was  allowed  to 
remain  overnight  without  explicit  permission,  and  those 
who  proved  themselves  obnoxious  in  any  way  were 
promptly  expelled  without  hesitation  or  delay.  The 
Quakers  received  no  charitable  handling  at  Plymouth. 
At  the  same  time  the  Pilgrims  were  hospitable  to  a  fault 
and  did  give  temporary  refuge  readily  to  all  sorts,  kinds, 
and  conditions  of  men.    If  their  rule  seems  unyielding, 

must  be  remembered  that  it  was  enforced  by  Bradford 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  199 

in  a  very  elastic  and  flexible  way,  with  a  serious  attempt 
to  mete  out  justice  to  all.  So  far  as  we  know,  while  the 
Pilgrims  were  the  only  considerable  settlement  on  the 
coast,  no  one  was  turned  away,  however  unworthy,  and 
many  were  kept  for  months  of  whom  the  Pilgrims  would 
have  been  glad  to  rid  themselves.  In  later  years,  when 
the  other  settlements  outnumbered  the  Pilgrims  ten  to 
one,  and  there  was  little  if  any  chance  of  people  not 
finding  refuge,  the  Pilgrims  were  less  ready  to  permit 
those  of  whom  they  did  not  approve  to  make  more  than 
temporary  visits  to  the  jurisdiction.  They  were  cer-\ 
tainly  as  tolerant  as  any  men  of  their  time  and  under  the 
circumstances  perhaps  more  so  than  others. 

At  the  same  time,  we  shall  much  misrepresent  them, 
if  we  suppose  for  an  instant  that  they  came  to  America 
in  order  to  promulgate  the  idea  that  anyone  might  come 
to  Plymouth  and  think  what  he  liked,  or  to  found  a 
refuge  for  people  who  wished  to  disagree  with  them. 
On  the  contrary,  they  came  to  escape  the  necessity  of 
tolerating  those  who  disagreed  with  them,  in  the  hope 
that  they  might  be  able  to  erect  in  America  a  temporal 
organization  sufficiently  strong  to  keep  divergent  minds 
at  something  better  than  arm's  length.  With  that  in- 
tention the  age  was  entirely  in  sympathy.  Toleration 
was  not  then  believed  to  be  a  virtue  and  the  conduct  of 
Bradford  at  Plymouth  is  the  exact  counterpart  of  that 
of  Winthrop  at  Boston,  of  Eaton  and  Davenport  at  New 
Haven,  and  of  Oliver  Cromwell  in  England.  Toleration 
was  then  in  the  making  and  these  men  were  making  it. 
To  it  none  contributed  more  than  the  Pilgrims,  but  they 
themselves  did  not  know  it,  and  would  have  denied  it 
with  asperity  and  vehemence,  if  they  had  been  charged 
with  it. 


200  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Bibliographical  Notes 

Pilgrim  Church  History.  The  excessive  fear  of  interference 
from  England  and  the  determination  to  provide  no  prima  facie 
evidence  of  failure  to  conform  to  the  requirements  of  the 
Established  Church  perhaps  explains  the  decision  of  the 
Pilgrims  to  keep  no  church  records.  The  first  section  of  the 
records  of  Plymouth  First  Church  consists  of  the  manuscript 
of  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial,  most  of  which  was 
based  upon  Bradford's  History  and  the  rest  of  which  is 
utterly  unreliable.  The  records  proper  begin  in  1667  with 
Cotton's  pastorate  and  have  been  printed  in  the  Mayflower 
Descendant,  IV,  V,  VIII,  etc.  The  histories  and  literature  of 
the  New  England  Churches  in  general  either  omit  Plymouth 
altogether  or  barely  mention  it.  Neither  Lechford's  Plaine 
Dealing  (Trumbull's  Ed.)  nor  Morton's  New  English  Canaan 
(Prince  Soc.)  distinguished  between  Pilgrim  and  Puritan 
practice,  and  devote  only  brief  paragraphs  to  the  former. 
There  is  some  material  in  J.  Cotton,  Way  of  the  Churches  of 
Christ  in  New  England,  London,  1645,  but  the  extent  and 
accuracy  of  his  information  on  Plymouth  is  open  to  question. 
John  Cotton's  Account  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Plymouth, 
in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  IV,  no,  was  not  written  until  1760, 
and  refers  principally  to  the  period  after  1667.  It  quotes 
freely  from  Morton  and  the  Church  Records,  though  without 
acknowledgments. 

H.  M.  Dexter's  The  Church  Polity  of  the  Pilgrims  the  Polity 
of  the  New  Testament,  pp.  82,  Boston,  1870,  is  polemical  rather 
than  historical,  assumes  the  identity  of  Pilgrim  Church 
government  and  that  of  the  Congregational  churches  of  his 
own  day,  and  attempts  to  prove  from  the  New  Testament 
that  such  was  primitive  Christianity.  Cotton's  Magnolia, 
Book  V,  Part  II,  contains  the  Platform  of  Church  Discipline 
of  the  Synod  of  Cambridge  of  1649  which  seems  to  have 
been  approved  at  Plymouth  in  the  last  decades.  Explicit, 
direct,  first-hand  evidence  on  Pilgrim  ecclesiastical  history, 


The  Dominant  Note  at  Plymouth  201 

we  lack  for  nearly  all  points  of  first  importance.  From  Brad- 
ford we  see  clearly  the  issue  of  Church  government,  the 
domination  of  the  State  by  the  Church,  and  get  personal  de- 
tails about  the  ministers  and  their  troubles.  But  upon  doc- 
trine, ceremony,  discipline,  we  must  infer,  deduce,  and  piece 
together  scattered  fragments. 


CHAPTER  XV 

GOVERNMENT  AND  ADMINISTRATION,    1627-1657 

The  relation  of  Church  and  State  at  Plymouth  was 
singularly  close  and  significant.  Already  in  Holland  the 
Pilgrim  leaders  had  seen  that  their  failure  to  control 
the  economic  and  political  situation  would  ultimately 
result  in  a  failure  to  maintain  their  ecclesiastical  position 
and  they  left  Leyden  fully  determined  to  create  a  state 
which  should  maintain  and  protect  the  Church.  From 
the  first  therefore  ecclesiastical  necessity  influenced  the 
form  of  civil  government  and  the  temporal  policy  of  the 
leaders.  The  perpetuation  of  God's  Ordinances  became 
literally  the  cornerstone  of  civil  polity.  At  all  costs  the 
unity  of  the  Church  must  be  preserved,  and  no  consid- 
erable accession  of  people  to  the  little  colony  should  be 
permitted,  likely  to  outnumber  and  outvote  those  whose 
loyalty  to  the  ecclesiastical  ideal  was  already  assured. 
Practically  interpreted,  this  meant  that  the  constitution 
of  the  State  was  to  vest  in  the  leaders  authority  over  all 
existing  colonists,  a  power  to  limit  newcomers  in  number 
to  a  minority  of  the  total  population,  and  to  exclude  all 
those  who  did  not  seem  likely  to  amalgamate  in  time 
with  the  Pilgrim  Church.  The  experience  with  Oldham 
and  Lyford  confirmed  the  necessity  and  expediency  of 
this  decision  and  erected  it  into  a  cornerstone  of  con- 
stitutional law. 

Such  a  civil  policy  was  necessarily  antagonistic  to  the 
physical  growth  of  the  colony.  The  leaders  insensibly 
feared  the  accession  of  members,   an  increase  in  the 


Government  and  Administration,  1627-16 ff      203 

number  of  towns,  a  division  of  the  Plymouth  Church  into 
several  Churches  as  tantamount  to  the  disruption  of  the 
colony  and  the  downfall  of  religion  itself.  Able  and  ener- 
getic personalities  they  came  to  suspect  and  were  chary 
of  granting  them  a  share  of  political  power.  The  coming 
of  the  Puritans  to  Boston,  they  realized,  afforded  them 
much  needed  support  and  temporal  assistance  and  they 
could  not,  despite  themselves,  but  feel  that  these  were 
their  brethren.  At  the  same  time  they  wished  no  large 
accession  of  Puritans  within  the  boundaries  of  Plymouth 
and  they  therefore  framed  a  government  and  created  a 
definition  of  political  privilege,  which  should  so  far  as 
possible  discourage  and  hamper  immigration. 

Naturally,  the  type  of  civil  government  established  at 
Plymouth,  conditioned  by  this  assumed  necessity  of 
defending  State  and  Church  from  outside  influence, 
vested  practically  unlimited  discretionary  authority  in 
the  hands  of  the  Governor.1  This  they  had  at  once 
concluded  was  essential,  though  they  also  appreciated 
the  advisability  of  entire  discretion  in  its  use.  This 
broad  and  flexible  authority  was  conferred  upon  William 

1  The  authorities  for  this  topic  are  Bradford's  History,  the  only 
source  of  much  value  for  the  period  to  1636;  the  Plymouth  Colony 
Records,  12  vols.;  Brigham,  Laws  of  New  Plymouth,  and  the 
Records  of  the  various  towns.  On  the  whole,  the  material  for  the 
constitutional  history  of  Plymouth  is  singularly  fragmentary  and 
elusive  in  character  and  administrative  practice  as  well  as  legal 
theory  is  peculiarly  difficult  to  determine.  The  critical  apparatus 
upon  which  this  chapter  is  based  became  too  elaborate  and  tech- 
nical to  permit  its  inclusion  in  footnotes.  Some  of  the  statements 
in  the  text  are  perhaps  more  positive  than  the  direct  evidence  war- 
rants, but  attempts  to  qualify  and  explain  made  a  chapter,  even 
now  somewhat  long,  entirely  out  of  proportion  to  the  rest  of  the 
book  and  resulted  in  an  account  which  lacked  clarity  for  the 
general  reader. 


204  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Bradford  in  April,  162 1.  He  promptly  proceeded  to 
perform  such  executive  work  as  seemed  necessary,  usu- 
ally after  consultation  with  "a  few";  and  to  arraign  and 
punish  such  offenders  as  he  and  the  few  he  consulted 
deemed  essential.  For  the  first  three  years  the  govern- 
ment at  Plymouth  scarcely  deserved  the  name,  for  all 
functions  seem  to  have  been  united  in  the  person  of  the 
Governor,  and  those  exercised  were  not  primarily  ad- 
ministrative at  all.  The  fact  of  the  Common  Stock  and 
the  Agreement  with  the  merchants  imposed  upon  him 
the  duty  of  regulating  the  labor  of  the  community  as 
well  as  the  apportionment  of  the  proceeds.  He  was  in 
fact  more  an  overseer  of  work,  a  foreman  in  the  fields,  a 
storekeeper  who  portioned  out  the  common  supplies  and 
put  away  what  had  been  collected  or  raised,  than  a  civil 
officer  of  any  recognized  type.  We  are  told  that  the 
whole  body  of  settlers  *  met  several  times  in  those  first 
years  to  consider  public  affairs  and  that  a  variety  of 
decisions  were  reached,  but  no  formal  record  was  kept 
of  what  those  decisions  were,  nor  was  any  record  kept 
for  some  fifteen  years  beyond  such  notes  as  Bradford 
saw  fit  to  make.  This  fusion  of  executive,  administrative, 
and  judicial  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Governor,  this 
lack  of  formality,  this  unlimited  discretion  provided 
exactly  that  type  of  government  best  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  Church.  Whatever  was  required  in  its  in- 
terests could  be  done  promptly  and  without  hesitation, 
and  without  permitting  argument  over  its  legality.  Until 
the  leaders  knew  better  what  regulations  and  forms  the 
situation  demanded,  they  proposed  to  hamper  their 
discretion  as  little  as  possible. 

Such  a  government  was  unquestionably  an  extraordi- 
1  Possibly  with  some  exceptions;  we  cannot  be  sure. 


Government  and  Administration,  1627- 1657      205 

nary  tribute  to  the  personal  rectitude,  the  impartiality, 
the  diligence,  and  the  ability  of  William  Bradford.  By 
general  consent  all  possible  governmental  power  was 
vested  for  one  year  in  one  man,  whose  discretion  was 
left  practically  untrammeled,  except  for  such  matters  as 
he  himself  of  his  own  free  will  saw  fit  to  submit  to  the 
whole  assembly,  or  dealt  with  in  accordance  with  the 
advice  of  others.  Such  complete  power  over  any  com- 
munity has  rarely  been  vested  in  one  individual  for  any 
length  of  time  with  that  community's  consent.  Bradford 
held  it  with  brief  intervals  from  1621  to  1657.  The  fact 
that  his  own  History  is  our  only  authority  for  many 
aspects  of  life  in  the  first  years  at  Plymouth  and  the 
fact  that  his  modesty  led  him  to  subordinate  his  share 
in  the  direction  of  events  long  concealed  the  extent  of 
his  influence.1  Surely  his  energy  must  have  been  vast, 
his  discretion  remarkable,  his  ability  commanding,  or 
those  stern  and  uncompromising  men  and  women  would 
scarcely  have  permitted  him  to  regulate  their  affairs  at 
discretion  so  long. 

To  be  sure,  such  a  government  was  possible  only  in 
a  small  community  of  homogeneous  people,  who  agreed 
thoroughly  upon  the  general  aims  of  private  and  public 
life,  and  whose  conduct  was  so  invariably  orderly  that 
the  amount  of  government  required  was  reduced  to  a 
minimum.  It  is  no  disparagement  of  Bradford's  ability 
or  discretion  to  say  that  in  most  affairs  the  little  colony 

1  When  the  Old  Colony  Club  at  Plymouth  held  its  first  solemn 
celebration  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  in  1770,  toasts  were 
drunk  "to  pious  ancestors,"  Carver,  Morton,  Standish,  Massas- 
soit,  Cushman,  but  neither  Bradford,  Brewster,  Winslow,  nor 
Alden.  This  shows  the  very  real  ignorance  about  Pilgrim  history 
which  the  traditions  of  Elder  Faunce  had  allowed  to  develop  at 
Plymouth  itself.    Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc,  2nd  Series,  III,  400-401. 


206  ,       The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

certainly  governed  itself  and  ordered  its  own  ways,  with 
such  complete  regard  to  the  common  interest  and  to  the 
proper  share  in  it  of  each  individual,  that  there  was  not 
a  great  deal  of  governing  to  be  done.  There  was  perhaps 
only  one  William  Bradford,  but  quite  as  certainly  there 
was  probably  never  gathered  together  in  one  community, 
before  or  since,  a  body  of  men  and  women  who  averaged 
higher  in  diligence,  in  spirituality,  and  in  law-abiding 
qualities  than  the  Pilgrim  fathers  and  mothers.  Some 
who  were  with  them,  but  not  of  them,  gave  Bradford 
uneasy  moments,  but  the  great  majority  certainly  did 
not  require  to  be  governed. 

At  the  same  time,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
ascendency  of  Bradford  was  so  complete  at  Plymouth  as 
to  render  the  colony  unattractive,  for  that  reason  alone, 
to  those  energetic  leaders  who  emigrated  from  England 
after  1630  at  the  head  of  numerous  colonists.  There  was 
room  at  Plymouth  for  but  one  Bradford  and  while  he 
occupied  the  stage  there  could  be  no  space  on  it  for  men 
who  also  felt  themselves  capable  of  directing  large  af- 
fairs and  who  were  conscious  of  great  ambitions.  The 
leaders  as  well  as  the  rank  and  file  found  Plymouth 
politically  unattractive.  Truth  to  tell,  neither  he  nor 
the  Pilgrim  leaders  dared  share  the  direction  of  affairs 
with  aggressive  personalities  nor  even  with  the  majority 
of  the  Plymouth  Church.  The  ascendency  of  the  Gov- 
ernor came  to  stand  in  their  eyes  for  the  supremacy  of 
the  Church  over  the  State,  for  the  protection  and  per- 
petuation of  the  Church  itself;  it  became  the  visible  sign 
of  success  in  their  great  design  in  coming  to  the  New 
World.  To  diminish  that  ascendency  or  attack  it  was 
to  shake  the  foundations  of  religion  and  to  disobey  the 
Ordinances  of  God. 


Government  and  Administration,  1627-16 57      207 

The  unlimited  authority  exercised  by  the  Governor 
was  granted  to  him  for  a  year  by  the  whole  body  of  those 
possessed  of  political  privilege  at  the  General  Court  of 
Elections,  which  met  annually  at  the  close  of  the  year — 
according  to  the  Old  Style  of  dating  used  by  the  Pil- 
grims— about  March  25.  In  practice,  this  General  Court 
of  Elections  possessed  what  we  should  call  today  the 
sovereign  power,  for  it  exercised  without  appeal  the 
supreme  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  authority. 
At  the  same  time,  it  is  abundantly  clear  that  the  Pilgrims 
did  not  look  upon  this  as  executive  and  that  as  legislative; 
there  was  so  much  to  be  done  and  they  did  it  without 
bothering  about  constitutional  subtleties.  Not  one  of 
them  had  had  a  legal  education  and  Brewster's  expe- 
rience with  Davison  had  been  diplomatic  rather  than  ad- 
ministrative. It  is  scarcely  less  anachronistic  to  repre- 
sent Bradford  and  Winslow  invoking  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people  or  thinking  in  terms  of  the  separation  of 
powers  than  to  imagine  them  diverting  the  Indians  with 
moving  pictures  or  exploring  Plymouth  Harbor  in  a 
submarine.  The  parties  of  the  Civil  Wars  in  England 
were  about  to  work  a  revolution  in  political  thinking, 
but  the  great  majority  in  England  were  as  yet  uncon- 
scious of  it  when  the  Pilgrims  were  shaping  their  flexible 
and  elastic  constitution  in  the  decades  between  1620- 
1640. 

The  leaders  consulted  the  majority  less  because  of' 
preconceived  theories  than  because  of  the  logic  of  facts. 
The  acquiescence  of  the  majority  was  absolutely  essential 
and  they  deemed  it  wiser  to  assure  themselves  of  it  by 
putting  questions  of  importance  to  a  vote  in  an  assembly, 
of  which  all  men  of  any  ability  or  position  were  members, 
and  in  which  they  were  invited,  nay  exhorted,  to  express 


208  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

their  opinions  and  preferences.  It  was  easier  to  deal 
with  the  known  than  with  the  unknown  and  the  "  con- 
spiracy' '  of  Lyford  and  Oldham  was  crushed  by  the 
simple  expedient  of  publicity. 

Two  strong  precedents,  familiar  to  them  all,  sanc- 
tioned this  practice  and  strengthened  their  belief  in  its 
expediency.  They  had  long  discussed  affairs  of  common 
interest  in  the  Great  House  on  the  Kloksteeg  at  Leyden, 
where  no  less  significant  issues  had  been  put  to  majority 
vote,  after  vigorous  and  free  discussion,  than  the  voyage 
to  America,  the  location  of  the  proposed  settlement  in 
North  America,  whether  the  Pastor  should  go,  and  the 
contract  with  the  English  merchants.  The  governmental 
issues  at  Plymouth  were  not  essentially  different  in  char- 
acter and  were  intrinsically  less  important.  The  Pilgrim 
ecclesiastical  organization,  based  upon  Luther's  priest- 
hood of  all  believers  and  Calvin's  right  of  the  individual 
to  judge  for  himself,  contained  the  fertile  seed  of  future 
American  democracy;  but  those  who  first  used  it  scarcely 
thought  of  it  as  governmental  and  recked  little  of  sanc- 
tions and  sovereignty. 

While  the  administrative  traditions  of  the  rank  and 
file  were  both  vague  and  mixed,  those  predominant  in 
Brewster's  mind  were  the  traditions  of  the  Manor  of 
Scrooby,  where  he  had  ruled  autocratically  as  Steward, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants, 
who  owed  suit  of  court  at  the  Court  Leet.  As  Steward 
he  had  possessed  a  combination  of  powers  very  similar 
to  those  the  Governor  exercised  at  Plymouth;  he  had 
been  responsible  to  an  Archbishop  who  rarely  interfered 
and  had  owed  an  allegiance  to  the  King,  which  was 
satisfied  in  the  sixteenth  century  by  bare  affirmations, 
for  the  " liberties"  of  the  manor  freed  him  and  its  in- 


Government  and  Administration,  1627-165'/      209 

habitants  from  all  immediate  responsibility  to  the  royal 
courts  and  officers.  The  laws  of  England  he  and  the 
suitors  had  construed  in  their  own  sense  at  the  Court 
Leet  and  they  had  been  accustomed  to  adopt  such  regu- 
lations for  their  own  affairs  as  they  deemed  convenient, 
all  without  thought  of  disloyalty,  independence,  or  sov- 
ereignty of  the  people.  Their  background  was  feudal 
and  not  modern,  but  it  did  provide  them  with  clear 
enough  precedent  for  their  own  right  to  manage  their 
own  affairs  without  royal  interference  and  at  the  same 
time  in  entire  consonance  to  the  law.  They  were  to 
obey  the  laws  of  England  but  they  might  interpret  them 
themselves.  We  shall  do  well  not  to  strain  our  analogies, 
but  is  it  not  more  probable  that  we  hear  the  voices  of  the 
suitors  of  the  old  Court  Leet  in  the  Pilgrim  Compact  and 
in  the  legislation  of  1636  than  a  conscious  creation  of  a 
new  constitution,  made  by  a  people  thoroughly  awake  to 
modern  ideas  of  popular  sovereignty,  and  already  im- 
bued with  a  belief  in  their  political  independence  of 
England? 

In  practice,  this  decision  to  protect  the  Church  at  all 
costs  and  thoroughly  to  test  the  loyalty  and  ecclesiastical 
conformity  of  the  newcomers  before  admitting  them  to  a. 
share  in  the  privileges  of  the  State  resulted  in  certain 
differentiations  in  political  status,  which  were  not  demo- 
cratic as  we  understand  the  word.  Political  equality 
never  existed  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  at  Plymouth 
during  the  lifetime  of  Bradford.  The  General  Court 
possessed  sovereignty  but  the  leaders  carefully  provided 
that  too  many  should  not  be  members.  No  other  def- 
inition of  political  privilege  existed  for  many  years  than 
membership  in  this  Court  and  the  qualifications  for 
admission  were  not  definite  nor  made  public.    Nominally, 


210  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

new-comers  were  admitted  with  the  consent  of  those 
already  possessed  of  privilege,  but  the  share  of  the  forty- 
one  signers  of  the  Pilgrim  Compact  in  government  was 
from  the  first  residual  rather  than  direct  or  immediate. 
Bradford  and  Allerton,  writing  back  to  England  in  1623 
in  answer  to  certain  charges  made  against  them  by  their 
enemies,  declare  "touching  our  governmente,  you  are 
mistaken  if  you  think  we  admite  weomen  and  children 
to  have  to  doe  in  the  same,  for  they  are  excluded,  as  both 
reason  and  nature  teacheth  they  should  be;  neither  doe 
we  admite  any  but  such  as  are  above  the  age  of  21  years 
and  they  also  but  in  some  weighty  matters,  when  we 
thinke  good."  1 

The  few,  in  reality,  were  to  govern  at  Plymouth  and 
Bradford  was  their  executive  head  and  officer  and  the 
controlling  influence  among  them.  Just  how  many  these 
were,  we  do  not  know.  Undoubtedly  the  eight  Under- 
takers were  members,  but  how  many  more  sat  with  them 
in  the  inner  council  we  cannot  say,  probably  not  above 
fifteen  in  these  earlier  years.  Membership  in  the  General 
Court  depended  upon  the  ability  of  the  man  to  convince 
them  of  his  desirability  or  to  prove  to  them,  in  their 
phrase,  that  he  was  godly,  sober,  and  discreet.  This 
meant  that  he  must  be  eminently  industrious,  of  quiet 
habits  and  ways,  submissive  and  deferential  to  Bradford 
and  other  leaders,  a  Church  member  in  posse,  and  one 
able  to  meet  the  rigid  tests  of  moral  conduct  sure  to  be 
imposed  upon  him.  After  a  time  the  members  of  the 
General  Court  came  to  be  known  as  freemen,  although 
the  practice  did  not  become  general  until  after  1630  and 
was  perhaps  adopted  as  a  result  of  the  influence  of 
Massachusetts.  In  1633,  when  the  first  list  of  freemen 
1  American  Historical  Review,  VIII,  299. 


Government  and  Administration,  1627-16 57      211 

was  recorded,  it  contained  sixty-eight  names;  twenty- 
three  more  were  apparently  admitted  freemen  in  the 
following  two  years,  but  in  1659,  despite  the  growth  of 
Plymouth  in  the  meantime,  the  electorate  of  the  whole 
colony  was  less  than  two  hundred. 

Below  the  Freemen  were  the  Inhabitants,  who  pos- 
sessed civil  and  legal  equality  with  the  freemen  but  had 
no  political  privilege.  They  included  the  heads  of  fam- 
ilies and  property  owners,  who  had  been  accepted  as 
permanent  residents,  and  who  were  potential  freemen. 
They  paid  taxes,  were  compelled  to  attend  Church,  were 
liable  for  military  service,  and  possessed  definite  prop- 
erty rights,  both  to  the  use  of  land  and  to  the  personal 
property  they  accumulated.  Although  they  could  not 
serve  as  members  of  a  jury,  they  had  a  right  to  be  tried 
by  one.  Wives,  all  unmarried  adult  women,  and  all 
minor  children  took  the  legal  status  of  the  husband  or 
father.  Below  the  Inhabitants  were  the  Sojourners,  who 
possessed  neither  legal  rights  nor  civil  equality  and  could 
not  hope  to  attain  political  privilege.  They  comprised 
those  who  had  not  yet  been  granted  by  the  authorities 
the  right  of  permanent  residence,  but  who  lived  on  from 
week  to  week  at  the  Governor's  discretion,  and  who 
might  in  time  become  Inhabitants,  and  after  due  period 
of  probation  Freemen.  During  the  first  decade,  Bradford 
seems  to  have  possessed  personally  the  right  to  permit  a 
stranger  to  sojourn,  and  to  extend  it  or  terminate  it  at 
discretion,  without  the  formality  of  consulting  the  other 
leaders. 

All  of  these  three  classes,  Freemen,  Inhabitants,  and 
Sojourners,  were  to  our  thinking  free  men.  They  were 
masters  of  their  own  time,  able  to  go  where  they  would. 
Below  them  in  the  Pilgrim  scale  were  the  unfree,  those 


212  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

who  did  not  possess  legally  the  control  of  their  own 
destinies.  These  comprised  indented  servants,  who  had 
hired  themselves  out  to  others,  either  in  England  or  in 
America,  for  a  term  of  years,  in  order  to  pay  their  pas- 
sage or  to  discharge  debts  accumulated  in  America. 
With  them,  though  not  exactly  of  their  class,  ranked 
domestic  servants,  of  whom  there  were  a  few  at  Plym- 
outh, and  those  who  had  hired  themselves  out  as 
servants,  though  not  for  a  specified  term  of  years  or 
by  a  written  contract.  There  were  also  a  number  of 
apprentices,  mostly  minors,  the  number  of  whom  in- 
creased considerably  as  time  went  on.  There  were  be- 
sides many  Indian  servants  and  a  few  Indian  slaves, 
mostly  captives  taken  in  war.  Not  improbably  the  un- 
free  at  Plymouth  were  as  many  as  one-quarter  or  one- 
third  of  the  total  population  and  in  the  early  years  per- 
haps a  more  considerable  proportion. 

The  crystallization  of  constitutional  law  and  practice 
at  New  Plymouth  was  slow,  primarily  because  the 
leaders  found  elaborate  formalities  unnecessary  in  so 
small  a  colony,  but  in  large  measure  because  they  feared 
the  effect  upon  the  welfare  of  the  Church  of  surrendering 
their  discretionary  power.  From  1621  to  1624  the  only 
constituted  authority  was  the  Governor  and  one  As- 
sistant (Allerton).  In  1624,  at  the  request  of  Bradford, 
four  new  Assistants  were  created  and  elected,  making  a 
Governor  and  a  Council  of  five,  in  which  the  former 
had  a  double  vote.  In  1633,  the  growth  of  the  colony 
and  the  additional  administrative  work  led  them  to  add 
two  more  Assistants  to  the  Council,  making  seven  in  all. 
The  Governor  remained,  however,  as  before,  almost 
supreme  depository  of  authority  and  was  at  once  Execu- 
tive, Treasurer,  Secretary  of  State,  and  Judge,  for  the 


Government  and  Administration,  1627-16 57      213 

power  of  the  Assistants  to  act  upon  their  own  initiative 
seems  to  have  been  either  non-existent  or  exceedingly 
small.  Explicit  provision  was  made  that  these  "  offices 
were  annual,"  that  is  to  say,  the  grant  of  power  was  ap- 
parently renewed  each  year  and  the  office  itself  would 
have  lapsed  but  for  the  vote  of  the  Court  continuing  it. 
Not  until  1636  was  any  definition  of  the  powers  of  the 
Governor  or  Assistants  attempted  or  any  codification  of 
what  they  understood  the  law  to  be  written  on  paper. 
The  definitions  now  provided  by  no  means  deprived  the 
Governor  of  his  old  discretionary  authority.  He  was  to 
execute  the  laws  and  ordinances;  he  was  empowered 
personally  to  arrest  and  imprison  at  discretion  any  citi- 
zen or  stranger,  and  to  examine  all  persons  whom  he  felt 
to  be  suspicious.  No  limitations  upon  this  authority 
were  imposed,  no  more  exact  definition  attempted.  He 
was  expected  speedily  to  bring  to  trial  before  the  Court 
of  Assistants,  or  before  the  General  Court  at  his  dis- 
cretion, such  persons  as  he  might  apprehend  or  such 
cases  as  he  did  not  feel  he  could  settle  himself.  The  As- 
sistants were  his  deputies,  might  take  his  place  tempo- 
rarily, but  possessed  individually  no  executive  authority, 
except  as  he  might  from  time  to  time  see  fit  to  delegate 
it  to  them.  Sitting  collectively  with  the  Governor,  they 
possessed  the  right  to  advise  him,  and  probably  had  the 
right  to  be  consulted,  though  the  law  did  not  say  so. 
The  legislation  of  1636,  if  it  deserves  the  name,  did  not 
alter  the  discretionary  aspect  of  government  at  Plym- 
outh nor  did  it  perceptibly  reduce  the  power  of  the 
Governor.  It  was  in  fact  little  more  than  a  statement 
of  what  the  practice  had  become  during  the  regime  of 
Bradford.  After  1633,  the  latter  was  not  Governor  every 
year,  but  he  continued  to  be  one  of  the  Assistants  when 


214  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

he  was  not  Governor,  and,  until  his  death  in  1657, 
exercised  a  controlling  influence  in  the  state. 

The  judicial  power  at  Plymouth  rested  in  the  early- 
years  with  the  Governor.  He  decided  himself  such  cases 
as  he  felt  he  could  and  received  such  assistance  as  he 
asked  for,  but  apparently  no  such  aid  was  compulsory. 
Whether  or  not  in  the  first  years  a  case  could  have  been 
appealed  from  Bradford  himself  to  the  Governor  and 
Assistants  and  from  them  to  the  General  Court  on  the 
initiative  of  the  defendant  is  exceedingly  doubtful.  The 
method  of  trial  in  these  first  years  is  sufficiently  clear 
from  the  cases  of  Lyford,  Morton,  Billington,  and  others. 
There  were  apparently  no  lawyers  at  Plymouth  and  no 
defence  in  our  sense  of  the  word  was  attempted.  The 
Governor  or  his  deputy  was  at  once  judge  and  prosecuting 
attorney.  There  were  no  set  examinations  and  no 
definite  legal  forms  were  observed.  None  of  the  Pil- 
grims had  had  legal  training  and  they  could  not  therefore 
very  well  observe  English  forms  with  which  they  were  not 
familiar.  The  practice  of  the  Manorial  Court  at  Scrooby 
Brewster  knew  and  no  doubt  they  followed  it  as  closely 
as  they  could.  In  criminal  cases,  an  oral  charge  was  made 
by  the  Governor  or  his  deputy  of  the  case  against  the 
prisoner.  An  oral  reply  was  permitted  him,  and  the  ques- 
tion and  answer  continued  quite  without  restriction  and 
without  formal  oaths,  taken  for  judicial  effect,  and  with- 
out anything  that  would  have  been  considered  in  Eng- 
land pleading  to  the  jurisdiction.  Written  pleadings  were 
not  essential  but  witnesses  were  informally  called  by  the 
Court  or  by  the  accused  without  restriction. 

Civil  cases,  where  two  parties  appeared,  were  appar- 
ently tried  by  the  parties  themselves,  each  of  whom 
stated  his  case  to  the  Governor  or  to  such  aids  as  the 


Government  and  Administration,  1627-16 57      215 

Governor  had  asked  to  sit  with  him.  No  plaintiff  or 
defendant  can  have  had  much  difficulty  in  getting  before 
the  Court  and  the  little  community  at  large  the  true 
facts  about  his  case.  It  must  be  remembered  that  judi- 
cial work  in  a  tiny  community,  where  everyone's  goings 
and  comings  and  practically  his  inmost  thoughts  were 
known  to  the  community  as  a  whole,  was  a  comparatively 
simple  matter.  In  1634,  the  General  Court  provided  that 
actions  of  debt  or  trespass  involving  less  than  forty 
shillings  value  should  be  tried  by  the  Governor  and 
Assistants.  This  was  little  more  than  a  definition  of 
what  had  always  been  true  and  had  chiefly  the  effect  of 
preventing  appeals  of  such  cases  to  the  General  Court 
itself.  This  raises  the  presumption  that  such  appeals 
had  become  common.  In  1636,  the  judicial  competence 
of  the  Governor  and  two  Assistants  was  affirmed  for  the 
trial  of  civil  cases  under  forty  shillings  and  of  all  criminal 
cases  where  the  penalty  was  a  small  fine.  Provision  was 
made  for  the  empanelling  of  a  Grand  Jury  to  present 
offences  and  the  Governor  was  formally  denominated 
Prosecuting  Attorney.  In  1666,  this  minor  jurisdiction 
was  handed  over  to  the  Selectmen  of  the  towns.  In 
165 1,  the  Governor  was  empowered  to  create  one  of  the 
Assistants  Deputy-Governor.  This,  however,  was  merely 
the  confirmation  of  an  existing  practice  and  was  due  per- 
haps to  the  growing  infirmity  of  Bradford.  Not  until 
1679  was  a  Deputy-Governor  formally  elected. 

Serious  crimes  at  Plymouth  seem  to  have  been  few. 
Murder,  arson,  burglary,  as  distinguished  from  pocket- 
picking  and  the  stealing  of  tools,  were  very  rare.  A  few 
cases  of  vagrancy  are  reported  but  seem  rather  to  have 
been  what  we  would  call  laziness  or  a  technical  charge 
by  which  to  apprehend  a  man,  otherwise  undesirable, 


216  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

than  real  crimes.  Inasmuch  as  one  of  the  capital  crimes 
at  Plymouth  was  " diabolical  conversation,"  some  lat- 
itude of  interpretation  of  the  criminal  law  was  essential. 
This  throws  considerable  light  upon  the  Pilgrim  "  criminal 
code"  in  the  absence  of  what  were  elsewhere  regarded  as 
serious  crimes.  There  is  evidence  on  every  page  of  the 
records  of  a  serious  attempt  at  fairness,  justice,  and 
mercy.  A  spirit  of  general  forbearance  is  evident,  which 
one  would  not  expect  to  find,  considering  what  has  been 
so  often  said  about  the  Pilgrims  and  about  the  intol- 
erance of  Bradford  and  his  followers  in  particular.  They 
did  not  follow  the  letter  of  the  law  too  strictly  and  they 
were  far  from  heartless.  Many  complaints  were  dis- 
charged; many  penalties  were  mitigated;  many  fines 
never  collected. 

The  relationship  between  the  colony  of  Plymouth,  the 
Pilgrim  Church,  the  town  of  Plymouth,  and  the  other 
various  towns  and  Churches  of  the  colony  is  one  of  the 
most  abstruse  of  all  the  difficult  problems  in  Pilgrim  in- 
stitutional history.  Bradford  unquestionably  intended 
that  colony,  Church,  and  town  should  be  one  and  the 
same,  and  always  opposed  a  grant  of  authority  to  a  new 
town  or  the  recognition  of  a  new  Church  as  a  tendency 
sure  to  diminish  the  authority  of  the  leaders  at  Plymouth 
and  certain  in  time  to  disintegrate  the  original  Pilgrim 
Church.  Until  1630  there  seems  to  have  been  no  attempt 
to  leave  either  the  Church  or  the  town  of  Plymouth 
which  was  not  easily  and  immediately  suppressed  by  the 
leaders.  The  foundation  of  Duxbury  in  163 1  by  Standish 
and  Alden,  and  its  recognition  as  a  town  in  the  succeeding 
year,  seems  promptly  to  have  resulted  in  the  creation  of 
a  government  for  the  town  of  Plymouth  separate  from 
that  of  the  colony.     In  1633  a  Constable  was  chosen 


Government  and  Administration,  162J-165J      217 

for  the  town,  and  in  the  following  year  persons  were 
appointed  to  lay  out  highways.  In  1643  raters  of  taxes 
appeared,  but  not  until  1649  were  Select  men  chosen, 
and  not  until  then  therefore  was  there  a  real  executive 
for  the  town  of  Plymouth  and  work  performed  there  by 
other  officers  than  the  colonial  government  itself.  There 
were  by  that  time  several  towns  in  the  colony,  all  of  which 
recognized  the  authority  of  the  General  Court,  the  major- 
ity of  which  consisted  still  of  the  freemen  of  Plymouth 
itself.  It  exercised  an  instant  and  searching  supervision 
over  the  new  towns  from  the  very  first,  and  so  far  as 
possible  seems  to  have  restricted  their  competence  to 
the  allotment  of  land  and  of  cattle,  the  repairing  of 
fences,  the  hiring  of  men  to  herd  cattle,  and  the  like. 
How  much  further  their  powers  might  have  extended  at 
this  early  period  the  records  of  these  towns  do  not  tell  us. 
In  all  probability  the  work  required  was  simple  in  the 
extreme  and  did  not  comprise  more  than  the  primary 
common  interests  just  mentioned. 

As  early  as  1638,  six  towns  beside  Plymouth  had  al- 
ready come  into  existence  and  a  good  deal  of  opposition 
was  apparent  to  the  "sovereign  power"  exercised  by  the 
General  Court  of  Elections,  on  the  ground  that  the 
majority  of  freemen  were  resident  in  Plymouth  anyway, 
and  that  the  freemen  resident  in  other  towns  could  attend 
only  at  so  great  a  sacrifice  to  themselves  as  practically 
to  leave  the  political  authority  with  the  leaders  in  Plym- 
outh. Indeed,  there  can  be  little  question  that  the  leaders 
had  hoped  that  this  situation  would  retain  men  at  Plym- 
outh and  prevent  the  foundation  of  other  towns.  Their 
attempts  to  supervise  stringently  the  constitutional 
arrangements  of  the  new  towns  had  been  probably  under- 
taken to  discourage  the  resort  of  people  thither  and  to 


218  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

bring  those  who  had  already  gone  back  to  Plymouth, 
if  it  were  possible.  They  deemed  it  best  to  agree  how- 
ever in  1638  to  the  formation  of  an  assembly  of  towns,  in 
which  Plymouth  should  have  four  votes  and  the  other 
towns  two  each,  to  be  cast  by  delegates  elected  by  the 
freemen.  The  new  Assembly  was  to  legislate  but  found 
its  power  considerably  circumscribed  by  the  necessity  of 
propounding  a  law  at  one  court  and  of  considering  it  at 
the  next.  Probably  this  was  due  to  the  desire  of  the 
delegates  to  discuss  the  measure  with  their  constituents 
at  home  and  to  return  to  the  next  meeting  with  instruc- 
tions for  action,  but  it  inevitably  resulted  in  delay  and 
obstruction.  The  new  Assembly  was  to  sit  four  times  a 
year,  and  the  Governor  and  Assistants,  now  called  the 
"Bench,"  were  to  form  a  sort  of  upper  house.  The  mem- 
bers from  the  towns,  called  at  first  "committees"  and 
afterwards  "deputies,"  formed  the  lower  house. 
^~-The  two  houses,  however,  commonly  sat  and  voted  to- 
gether, the  decision  being  by  majority  vote,  the  "bench" 
being  counted  with  the  "deputies,"  a  practice  which 
persisted  until  the  end  of  the  colony.  The  General  Court 
of  Elections  retained  its  sovereignty,  and  its  relation  to 
the  new  Assembly  is  difficult  to  explain,  for  it  certainly 
still  retained  the  power  of  passing  laws  itself,  and  still 
annually  chose  the  Governor,  Assistants,  and  Treasurer, 
when  that  office  was  presently  created,  and,  after  1643, 
the  Plymouth  Commissioners  of  the  New  England  Con- 
federation. The  General  Court  sometimes  repealed  the 
laws  passed  by  the  Assembly,  although  it  became  pres- 
ently more  common  for  the  latter  to  legislate,  and  for  the 
work  of  the  General  Court  to  be  restricted  to  the  election 
of  officers.  Except  for  the  towns,  there  were  no  other 
sub-divisions  in  the  colony  until  1685,  when  three  counties 


Government  and  Administration,  1627- 1657     219 

were  created,  whose  boundaries  were  substantially  those 
of  the  present  counties  of  Plymouth,  Barnstable,  and 
Bristol.  The  control  therefore  remained  to  the  death  of 
Bradford  substantially  in  the  hands  of  the  freemen  of 
Plymouth  itself,  who  used  the  General  Court  as  their 
principal  constitutional  weapon.  Here  again  was  a 
fruitful  source  of  discontent  among  those  resident  in  the 
colony  and  a  frequent  cause  of  dissatisfaction  among 
newcomers. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ECONOMIC  PRIVILEGE,    1627-1657 

The  Pilgrim  leaders  early  saw  that  the  possession  of 
economic  privilege  must  be  the  reward  of  orthodoxy. 
It  should  be  the  visible  pearl  of  great  price  which  alone 
could  compensate  the  Elect  of  God  for  the  toil  and  effort 
necessary  to  establish  His  Church  in  the  New  World. 
Nor  were  they  slow  to  realize  that  it  would  be  an  influence 
by  no  means  to  be  despised  in  leading  the  timid  and  ig- 
norant to  investigate  with  a  whole  heart  the  ecclesiastical 
propositions  they  held  to  be  so  true.  The  withholding  of 
economic  privileges  must  be  the  gleaming  sword  with 
which  the  faithful  could  and  should  defend  and  preserve 
the  purity  of  the  Church  and  the  integrity  of  the  State. 
It  was  the  one  weapon  which  definitely  reached  the 
worldly,  the  selfish,  and  the  objectionable.  To  make 
living  difficult  for  them  at  Plymouth,  to  make  profit 
impossible,  was  the  one  means  of  rendering  Plymouth 
so  unattractive  that  they  would  depart  voluntarily,  and 
thus  relieve  the  leaders  of  the  necessity  of  a  forcible 
expulsion,  which  was  only  too  likely  to  attract  attention 
from  Bishops  and  royal  officials  whose  inquiries  it  might 
be  impossible  to  avoid  and  equally  impossible  to  satisfy. 
Economic  privilege,  therefore,  like  civil  rights,  was  to  be 
dependent  upon  Church  membership.  The  period,  both 
in  Europe  and  in  America,  was  one  of  strict  economic 
regulation  on  the  part  of  the  state  and  the  maintenance 
was  universal  of  a  great  variety  of  exclusive  privileges 
and  concessions..    Economic  regulation  was  not  new  to 


Economic  Privilege,  1627-1657  221 

those  at  Plymouth.  There  was  no  place  indeed  in  New 
England  where  economic  privilege  was  not  dependent 
upon  conformity  to  the  Church,  but  there  were  few 
colonies  where  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  prerequisites 
of  a  share  in  the  economic  privileges  were  as  stringent  or 
as  consistently  and  rigidly  enforced.  The  small  size  of 
the  colony  throughout  its  history,  the  fact  that  it  in- 
cluded for  more  than  ten  years  only  one  town,  made  a 
degree  of  regulation  possible  which  could  not  have  been 
maintained  in  a  larger  community,  differently  placed 
and  differently  governed. 

The  one  thing  of  value  in  early  Plymouth  was  land. 
Ownership  was  impossible,  because  the  title  was  vested 
in  the  Adventurers  till  1629  and  then  till  1640  in  Brad- 
ford, finally  reaching  the  whole  body  of  freemen  as  a 
corporation,  not  as  individuals,  in  1640.  The  first  al- 
lotments of  land  for  individual  use  were  made  by  the 
Governor,  with  the  confirmation  of  the  General  Court. 
Probably  the  dispensations  were  for  the  most  part  Brad- 
ford's personal  judgment,  perhaps  because  any  division 
of  land  prior  to  1627  was  contrary  to  the  agreement 
with  the  merchants  and  the  majority  were  quite  willing 
to  let  him  shoulder  the  responsibility  of  a  breach  of  that 
agreement.  LUntil  1640,  the  vast  majority  of  people 
therefore  did  not  own  land,  but  possessed  instead  tempo- 
rary rights  of  occupancy .3  These  had  been  assigned  an- 
nually to  the  various  individuals  by  the  Governor  and 
Assistants,  and  then,  as  towns  were  organized,  by  the 
town  authorities.  This  allotment  of  land  became  the 
most  important  event  of  the  year,  the  surest  method  of 
reward  or  punishment  for  past  conduct,  the  effective 
measure  of  an  individual's  status  and  rights.  Attempts 
to  evade  it  or  to  supply  omissions  from  it  were  not  un- 


222  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

common  and  were  ordinarily  occupancy  without  per- 
mission or  purchase  from  Indians.  The  latter  transac- 
tions were  invariably  denied  validity,  unless  the  previous 
consent  of  the  General  Court  had  been  obtained.  It  was 
quite  obvious  that  to  recognize  the  possibility  of  such 
purchase  by  individuals  was  to  accept  the  superiority 
of  the  Indian  title  to  their  own  patents  from  the  King. 
They  claimed  later  that  they  had  originally  bought  the 
land  as  a  whole  from  the  Indians  and  therefore  could  not 
accept  subsequent  purchases  from  individual  Indians  as 
valid.  Cases  however  appeared  every  few  years  and 
were  always  dealt  with  sternly.1 

LThe  monopoly  of  the  trading  rights  also  was  vested 
in  the  leaders,  certainly  until  1640.]  The  Indian  trade 
was  never  open  to  the  main  body  of  settlers  during  the 
first  twenty  years  of  its  history  and  perhaps  not  for  two 
or  three  decades  thereafter.  The  Common  Stock  had 
provided  for  its  monopoly  in  the  joint  interest  of  the 
merchants  and  the  settlers  and  for  its  control  until  1627 
by  the  leaders,  who  were  to  allow  the  majority  absolutely 
no  individual  share  in  it  whatever.  Between  1627  and 
1634  the  leaders  continued  to  hold  this  monopoly  as 
Undertakers,  or  until  the  debt  to  the  merchants  should 
be  finally  paid.  This  clearly  involved  more  responsibility 
than  privilege  on  their  part.  They  assumed  a  supposedly 
crushing  financial  burden  without  obtaining  a  privilege 
then  estimated  as  a  fair  equivalent.  After  1634,  for 
some  years  they  continued  to  control  the  trade  for  a 
variety  of  reasons.  To  their  monopoly  of  the  land,  of 
the  fishing,  and  of  the  fur  trade,  the  leaders  promptly 
added  a  stringent  control  of  such  other  economic  priv- 
ileges of  value  as  appeared. 

1  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  IV,  44,  49,  58,  59,  etc. 


Economic  Privilege,  162 7- 1657  223 

The  first  commodity  exported  to  England  was  dressed 
lumber,  and  when,  after  the  allotment  of  land  and  the 
practical  abolition  of  the  general  stock  in  1623,  individ- 
uals were  free  to  work  as  they  pleased,  the  General 
Court  decreed  that  no  one  should  sell  or  transport  lumber 
without  the  permission  of  the  Governor  and  Assistants, 
that  no  handicraftsmen,  tailors,  shoemakers,  carpenters, 
joiners,  smiths,  or  sawyers  should  do  any  work,  either 
in  Plymouth  or  outside,  for  any  strangers  until  the  needs 
of  the  Colony  itself  had  been  met.  The  Governor  and 
Assistants  were  to  accord  the  necessary  permission,  when 
in  their  judgment  the  condition  of  the  colony  warranted 
it.  The  General  Court  again  decreed  in  1626  that  no 
corn,  beans,  or  peas  should  be  transported  or  sold  out 
of  the  colony  without  the  Governor's  and  Assistants' 
permission.  After  live  stock  was  imported,  the  regula- 
tion promptly  appeared  that  no  animals  were  to  be  sold 
out  of  the  colony.1  From  the  first  in  all  probability  the 
Governor  had  regulated  prices  of  most  goods  produced 
in  the  colony  as  well  as  of  all  goods  imported  from  Eng- 
land. Wages  had  also  been  fixed  by  the  Governor  and 
Assistants,  and  in  January,  1635-36,  the  General  Court 
confirmed  this  power,  but  required  them  to  consult  with 
and  secure  the  consent  of  certain  men  named.2  In 
practice  these  regulations  covered  the  entire  economic 
activity  of  the  colony.  Nothing  was  done  or  could  be  done 
which  was  not  subject  to  the  direct  control  of  the  leaders. 

Nor  did  the  leaders  hesitate  to  increase,  diminish,  or 
withhold  the  shares  of  various  individuals  in  accordance 
with  their  estimate  of  the  man,  and  in  particular  of  his 
orthodoxy.    Four  degrees  of  economic  privilege  are  very 

1  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  I,  13. 

2  Ibid.,  36. 


\ 


224  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

sharply  outlined.  There  were  first  the  leaders  themselves, 
a  group  of  from  eight  to  fifteen,  sometimes  larger  or 
smaller.  They  allotted  themselves  the  best  land,  the 
best  cattle,  the  best  meadows  for  hay,  and  kept  in  their 
hands  for  nearly  twenty-five  years  the  entire  trade  with 
the  Indians  and  all  fishing  rights.  A  second  group  con- 
tained the  remainder  of  the  Church  members,  to  whom 
were  made  allotments  of  land  and  cattle  entirely  desir- 
able, and  in  the  main  such  as  they  wished,  located  where 
they  on  the  whole  preferred,  unless  too  many  chose  the 
same  spot.  These  seem  to  have  had,  after  the  first  fifteen 
years,  the  option  of  sharing  in  the  Indian  trade,  if  they 
were  also  willing  to  assume  a  corresponding  part  of  the 
financial  responsibilities  of  the  colony.  They  seem 
ordinarily  to  have  preferred  to  leave  both  the  trade  and 
the  debts  to  the  leaders.  A  third  group,  definitely  in- 
ferior, were  the  Inhabitants.  These  were  the  potential 
Church  members,  people  deemed  sufficiently  sober, 
godly,  and  discreet  to  be  allotted  land  and  to  be  permitted 
to  pursue  agriculture  under  such  restrictions  as  the  leaders 
deemed  necessary,  but  with  no  chance  to  share  in  the 
trade  of  the  colony. 

Below  them  were  a  fourth  group — the  unprivileged — 
those  who  were  not  considered  as  possible  Church  mem- 
bers or  citizens,  who  received  no  land,  who  had  no  right 
to  cut  hay  on  the  town  meadows,  who  were  to  work  as 
directed  and  who  were  to  be  ruled.  These  included  all 
temporary  residents  of  the  colony,  all  people  on  probation 
pending  a  decision  by  the  leaders  as  to  their  desirability, 
and  all  the  servants,  bond  servants,  apprentices,  minor 
children,  and  slaves.  In  a  considerable  number  of  in- 
stances, the  leaders  seem  to  have  concluded  that  some 
individuals  could  never  be  anything  better  than  servants 


Economic  Privilege,  1627-16 57  225 

and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  require  them  either  to  work 
for  some  freeman  of  the  colony  and  thus  to  cease  "  living 
disorderly,"  or  to  leave  the  jurisdiction.  The  time  of 
probation  before  an  Inhabitant  might  become  a  Freeman, 
or  one  of  the  unprivileged  might  become  an  Inhabitant, 
was  entirely  discretionary  with  the  leaders.  There  was 
apparently  no  rule  about  it,  and  there  were  certainly  no 
formal,  written,  or  publicly  acknowledged  qualifications 
of  wealth  or  status,  the  attainment  of  which  automat- 
ically conferred  right  to  examination  and  election.  The 
requirements  were  highly  elastic  and  clearly  varied  with 
the  individual.  Sometimes  they  had  no  hesitation  at  all 
and  acted  promptly  on  a  newcomer's  arrival.  In  other 
cases,  men  stayed  for  months  or  perhaps  years  without 
even  receiving  an  allotment  of  land.  Some  bond  servants, 
having  served  their  five  or  seven  years,  were  then  told 
that  they  were  undesirable  and  could  never  become 
Inhabitants.  No  legislation  was  ever  necessary;  no 
executive  or  judicial  enforcement  needed;  it  was  a  per- 
fectly simple  matter  to  pass  over  the  individual  when 
the  next  allotment  was  made,  and  a  failure  to  obtain 
land  was  equivalent  to  degradation  to  the  status  of  serv- 
ant or  to  banishment.1 

The  lengths  to  which  the  leaders  were  prepared  to  go 
is  shown  most  clearly  by  the  case  of  the  town  of  Sand- 
wich. This  was  one  of  the  towns  founded  in  the  30's  and 
recognized  with  reluctance.  It  was  based  upon  a  grant 
of  land  to  certain  Freemen  and  Church  members  of 
Plymouth,  who  proposed  themselves  to  form  the  nucleus 
of  the  town.  They  gathered  around  them  a  considerable 
number  of  people,  allotted  land,  admitted  men  as  free- 

1  The  Colony  and  Town  records  give  these  annual  allotments  in 
great  detail. 


226  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

men,  and  completed  their  organization  in  such  ways  as 
seemed  to  them  expedient.  In  1639  the  General  Court 
proceeded  to  investigate  their  conduct.  The  record 
states  that  "they  have  not  faythfully  discharged  that 
trust  reposed  in  them,  by  receiveing  into  the  said  towne 
divers  persons  unfitt  for  church  societie,  which  should 
have  beene  their  chiefe  care  in  the  first  place,  and  have 
disposed  the  greatest  part  of  the  landes  there  already, 
and  to  very  few  that  are  in  Church  societie  or  fitt  for  the 
same,  so  that  without  speedy  remedy  our  cheifest  end 
wilbe  utterly  frustrate." 

One  can  scarcely  have  a  clearer  statement  of  the  basis 
of  society  at  Plymouth  nor  more  definite  proof  of  the 
object  with  which  the  leaders  still  believed  the  colony 
had  been  founded.  A  month  later  the  General  Court 
passed  sentence.  No  more  people  were  to  be  admitted 
to  the  town  of  Sandwich  without  the  consent  of  the  Min- 
ister and  the  Church.  Such  of  the  Inhabitants  as  had 
already  been  admitted,  but  had  been  adjudged  unde- 
sirable, were  to  sell  and  leave.  Nor  was  any  more  land 
to  be  allotted  by  the  town  without  the  approval  of  one 
of  the  Assistants  of  the  colony,  from  whom  the  Freemen 
of  the  town  should  receive  advice  and  direction.1  The 
leaders  of  the  colony  practically  cancelled  the  entire 
arrangement,  which  the  Freemen  to  whom  the  grant  had 
been  made  had  already  instituted. 

On  the  whole  there  seems  to  be  good  reason  to  believe 
that  the  people  accepted  this  dictation  of  economic 
privilege  by  the  leaders  without  much  objection  and  cer- 
tainly without  open  revolt.  There  are  throughout 
Pilgrim  history  signs  that  individuals  disliked  and  dis- 
approved of  this  policy  and  of  its  results.  From  Weston, 
1  Records,  I,  131,  134. 


Economic  Privilege,  1627-16 ff  227 

Oldham,  and  Lyford,  we  pass  to  Morton,  Christopher 
Gardiner,  Samuel  Gorton,  and  a  considerable  number  of 
less  distinguished  individuals.  These  were  however  all 
newcomers,  the  majority  of  whom  left  of  their  own 
accord.  From  the  people  of  Plymouth  themselves  for 
more  than  fifteen  years,  we  have  practically  no  trace  of 
resistance  or  even  of  a  determination  to  share  in  the 
regulation.  After  1634  a  certain  amount  of  discontent 
seems  to  have  gradually  made  headway  among  the  free- 
men and  Church  members,  upon  whose  votes  the  leaders 
depended  and  whose  acquiescence  was  essential  in  the 
conduct  of  the  colony's  affairs.  When  the  original  grant 
to  the  Undertakers  expired  in  1634,  the  privilege  was 
continued  from  year  to  year  and  from  court  to  court, 
apparently  without  opposition,  the  records  indeed  in- 
dicating that  the  leaders  believed  the  trade  not  very 
valuable  and  that  the  great  majority  at  Plymouth  did  not 
wish  to  follow  it  at  all.1  At  the  same  time  the  leaders 
punished  those  who  infringed  upon  their  privilege  with 
promptitude  and  stringency. 

In  March,  1639,  however,  the  Grand  Jury,  impanelled 
for  the  usual  purposes,  brought  in  what  was  tantamount 
to  an  impeachment  of  the  leaders.  "  1.  Wee  desire  to  be 
informed  by  what  vertue  and  power  the  Governor  and 
his  Assistantes  doe  give  and  dispose  of  lands  either  to 
particular  persons  or  towneshipps  and  plantacons. 

2.  Wee  further  desire  to  be  informed  what  landes  are 
to  be  had  or  is  reserved  for  the  purchasers  as  hath  beene 
formerly  agreed  in  Court  too. 

3.  Wee  further  desire  to  be  informed  of  the  under- 
takers of  the  trade  what  wilbe  allowed  to  the  colony  for 
the  use  of  the  said  trade  during  the  years  past. 

1  Records,  I,  31,  32,  54,  62,  126. 


228  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

4.  Wee  further  desire  to  be  informed  why  there  is  not 
a  Treasurer  chosen  for  this  yeare,  as  other  officers."  l 
At  the  next  General  Court,  Bradford  and  his  partners,  so 
the  record  states,  notified  the  colony  that  they  would  not 
pursue  the  trade  longer  than  the  following  November. 
They  seem  to  wish  to  convey  the  impression  that  they  had 
in  the  meantime  been  doing  the  colony  a  distinct  favor 
by  holding  the  privilege  at  all.  Of  the  discontent  and 
dissatisfaction  which  the  Grand  Jury  record  undoubtedly 
revealed,  we  hear  nothing  further,  perhaps  because  in 
December,  1640,  it  was  agreed  that  any  freeman  who 
wished  to  trade  with  the  Indians  might  make  the  colony 
an  offer  for  the  privilege.2  If  no  suitable  offer  was  made, 
the  Governor  and  such  persons  as  he  should  select  were 
to  hold  the  privilege.  Apparently  the  leaders  themselves 
retained  the  right,  though  it  was  not  now  one  to  which 
they  attached  great  significance  or  from  which  they  made 
much  profit. 

There  seems  to  be  no  better  place  than  this  to  record 
the  fate  of  the  Undertakers  in  their  final  dealings  with 
the  English  merchants.  They  assumed  in  1627  the  whole 
debt  of  the  colony — some  £1800 — which  none  but  them- 
selves at  that  time  believed  could  be  paid.  They  also 
shouldered  the  entire  expense  of  transporting  to  Plym- 
outh the  rest  of  the  Leyden  Congregation,  some  £55o,3 
for  which  the  colony  never  reimbursed  them.  The 
privileges  they  received  included  the  fishing  post  which 
had  been  in  operation  near  Gloucester  ever  since  1623; 
the  fur- trading  post  on  the  Kennebec  which  had  proved 
profitable  for  several  years;  and  a  trading  route  across 

1  Records,  I,  119,  March  5,  1638-1639. 

2  Ibid.,  II,  4. 

3  Bradford,  History,  297,  299. 


Economic  Privilege,  1627- 1657  229 

Cape  Cod  to  Narragansett  Bay  by  which  they  reached 
the  Indian  tribes  on  Long  Island  Sound.  With  the 
Dutch  also  arrangements  for  an  exchange  of  commodities 
had  been  made  in  1627.1  The  rebuilding  of  one  of  the 
shallops  in  1626  had  provided  them  for  the  first  time 
with  a  vessel  decked  over  and  large  enough  to  venture 
into  Massachusetts  Bay  and  around  Cape  Cod.2  The 
following  year  they  established  a  trade  in  wampum, 
which  seems  hitherto  to  have  been  unknown  to  the 
Massachusetts  Indians,  and  which  turned  out  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly profitable.3  This  and  the  trade  with  the 
Dutch  led  them  to  give  up  the  attempt  to  supply  the 
English  fishing  fleet,  which  came  annually  to  the  Grand 
Banks,  and  also  the  trade  they  had  pursued  with  the 
struggling  planters  up  and  down  the  Massachusetts 
coast.  Conditions,  they  complained  bitterly,  were 
changing.  Where  they  had  at  first  been  able,  with  a 
yard  of  cloth  or  a  few  cheap  English  trinkets,  to  buy  a 
fine  skin  or  several  bushels  of  corn,  they  now  found  that 
the  Dutch  and  French  had  " demoralized' '  the  Indians 
by  paying  a  real  equivalent,  a  wicked  practice  which  the 
Pilgrims  much  deplored  as  showing  a  lack  of  imagination 
and  a  proper  degree  of  business  acumen.  The  Indians 
were  demanding  hatchets,  knives,  iron  kettles,  powder, 
guns,  with  the  result  that  the  degree  of  profit  in  the 
trade  had  fallen  off  considerably.4 

They  now  launched  forth  in  1628  and  1629  upon  a 
series  of  costly  ventures,  all  of  which  failed.    One  was 

Bradford,  History,  281;  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1st  Series,  III, 
52,  55,  56. 

2  Bradford,  History,  253. 

3  Ibid.,  281. 
'Ibid.,  283,  287. 


230  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

their  own  fault,  a  fishing  voyage  undertaken  without 
sufficient  calculation  or  judgment  and  pursued  without 
the  necessary  knowledge  of  fishing  essential  to  success.1 
As  Bradford  said,  fishing  had  always  been  fatal,  and 
indeed  out  of  it  from  first  to  last  they  seem  never  to 
have  made  a  farthing.  Allerton,  whom  they  had  made 
their  agent  in  England,  now  brought  back  to  Plymouth 
a  considerable  bill  of  goods  which  they  had  not  ordered. 
For  the  most  part  these  were  clothes  and  household 
utensils,  which  ranked  as  luxuries.  They  had  strictly 
ordered  him  to  purchase  only  a  moderate  amount  of 
trading  goods  to  exchange  with  the  Indians  for  more 
beaver,  and  felt  that  to  buy  more  for  themselves  was 
highly  inexpedient.2  They  were  anxious  to  devote  every 
pound  of  money  to  the  extinction  of  the  debt.  He  not 
only  failed  to  do  this,  partly  through  the  importunity  of 
Shirley,  one  of  the  English  partners,  but  he  also  impli- 
cated them  in  a  venture  on  the  Penobscot  by  one  Ash- 
ley.3 He  then  borrowed  in  England  considerable  sums 
of  money  at  fifty  per  cent  interest  4  which  he  invested  in 
trade;  he  chartered  one  ship  and  purchased  another  for 
trading  voyages  to  New  England.5  The  whole  involved 
a  total  expenditure  of  something  over  £7000,  an  aggre- 
gate sum,  borrowed  and  invested  by  one  man  in  two 
years,  as  large  as  the  entire  sum  which  they  calculated 
had  been  spent  in  creating  the  colony  up  to  that  time. 

In  1628  their  debts,  outside  the  main  debt  to  the 
Adventurers  of  £1800,  were  not  over  £400.     In  1630 

1  Bradford,  History,  312-313,  319-320,  324-325. 

2  Ibid.,  292-294,  303-304. 

3  Ibid.,  309-310. 

4  Ibid.,  311. 

5  Ibid.,  320,  325,  327. 


Economic  Privilege,  1627-1657  231 

they  were  not  less  than  £4000,  and  in  all  probability 
more.1  In  the  meantime,  Allerton  had  also  obtained  for 
them  as  partners,  four  English  merchants  to  whom  goods 
could  be  consigned  and  who  would  purchase  and  ship 
to  them  in  return  whatever  they  wished.  The  association 
was  from  the  first  unfortunate  and  disappointing  and 
grew  more  so  as  the  years  elapsed.  In  1630,  the  Pilgrims 
were  driven  to  renounce  Allerton  as  their  agent,  though 
with  misgiving  and  regret  because  of  his  marriage  to 
Brewster's  daughter,  and  their  very  great  concern  for 
Brewster's  feelings.2  They  applied  themselves  at  once 
diligently  to  the  collection  of  beaver  and  its  shipment  to 
the  English  partners,  Winslow  undertaking  Allerton's 
task  and  performing  it  with  extraordinary  tact,  ability, 
and  care.  In  1633,  they  set  up  a  trading  post  on  the 
Connecticut  River,3  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  Dutch, 
who  believed  themselves  to  have  secured  already  a  right 
to  that  trade.  They  threatened  to  fire  upon  the  Pilgrim 
ship,  if  she  should  attempt  to  go  up  the  river  and  estab- 
lish a  post  above  them,  thereby  intercepting  the  Indian 
trade.  This  however  the  Pilgrims  courageously  did  and 
derived  some  considerable  satisfaction  from  the  discom- 
fiture of  the  Dutch.  It  must  be  added  that  they  viewed 
that  type  of  proceeding  very  differently  when  an  English- 
man attempted  to  create  a  trading  post  on  the  Kennebec 
above  their  own.  Him  they  suppressed  and  unfortunately 
one  of  his  company  was  killed. 

Now  came  a  series  of  misfortunes.    In  1635  the  French 

1  Bradford,  History,  347. 

2  Ibid.,  305, 329.    On  final  episodes  of  his  history  see  pp.  348-349, 

358-359. 

3  Ibid.,  372-373.   The  trade  was  very  lucrative  during  1633-1634; 
ibid.,  375,  385,  409,  410. 


232  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

captured  the  post  on  the  Penobscot,  which  the  Pilgrims 
had  continued  after  the  bankruptcy  of  Ashley,  and  an 
expedition  which  they  equipped  to  retake  it  was  a 
ludicrous  failure.1  In  1636,  there  appeared  around  the 
post  on  the  Connecticut  the  first  of  the  Massachusetts 
colonists.  They  denied  the  validity  of  the  Pilgrim  pur- 
chase from  the  Indians  and  were  with  much  ado  gotten 
at  last  to  permit  them  to  retain  a  small  fraction  of  the 
land,  though,  apparently  without  any  scruple,  they  ap- 
propriated the  whole  Indian  trade.2  Now  came  the 
crowning  misfortune  of  all.  The  Pilgrims  learned  that 
Shirley,  chief  of  their  English  partners,  had  not  been 
honest  with  them.  They  calculated  that  they  had 
shipped  him  beaver  to  the  value  of  £i2,i5o,3  that  their 
indebtedness  on  the  score  of  Allerton's  failures  was  not 
in  excess  of  £4000,  the  original  indebtedness  to  the  Ad- 
venturers was  £1800,  and  they  were  therefore  astounded 
to  discover  that  the  other  three  English  partners  had 
not  received  any  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  beaver 
during  the  last  few  years,  and  that  Shirley  himself  re- 
garded them  as  still  in  his  debt.  Protest  they  did,  but 
they  deemed  it  better  to  extinguish  his  claims  and  paid 
him  in  1642  £i2oo.4  Even  then  they  were  not  entirely 
freed  from  charges  and  claims.  In  1646,  however,  they 
at  last  owed  no  man. 
The  difficulty  seems  to  have  lain  in  the  fact  that  they 

1  Bradford,  History,  350,  396-398. 

2  Ibid.,  407. 

3  Ibid.,  412-413.  Bradford,  like  so  many  of  his  contemporaries, 
was  a  poor  mathematician.  The  true  total  was  £  12,530,  as- 
suming the  annual  totals  were  correct. 

4  Bradford,  History,  446-448,  477-486.  Bradford  gives  a  mul- 
titude of  details  on  this  dreary  business  failure,  but  it  has  not 
seemed  wise  to  devote  space  to  them. 


Economic  Privilege,  1627-1657  233 

believed  others  as  far  above  taking  advantage  of  them 
in  business  as  they  were  themselves  incapable  of  dis- 
honesty. Allerton,  Shirley,  and  Beauchamp  professed 
what  the  Pilgrims  believed  to  be  "true  religion,"  were 
all  Church  members,  and  the  Pilgrim  leaders  simply 
could  not  conceive  that  these  men  would  try  to  over- 
reach them.  They  made  Allerton  legally  their  agent  in 
a  document  so  sweeping  that  they  were  bound  by  every- 
thing he  did,  without  the  possibility  of  an  explanation  or 
renunciation.  When  they  broke  with  him,  they  de- 
manded the  return  of  the  document.  He  was  unable 
to  produce  it;  but,  instead  of  demanding  from  him  a 
written  release,  they  accepted  his  verbal  promise  to  ob- 
tain it  from  Shirley  in  England.  Shirley  retained  the 
paper,  the  Pilgrims  never  did  receive  it,  and  on  the 
strength  of  it  Shirley  eventually  forced  them  to  pay  a 
very  considerable  sum  of  money  for  an  undertaking 
into  which  Allerton  entered  after  they  had  disowned 
him.  The  most  unfortunate  of  Allerton's  ventures  had 
been  explained  to  them  at  Plymouth  by  Allerton  and 
Hatherly  in  terms  which  completely  convinced  them  of 
the  former's  innocence.  They  accepted  his  verbal  state- 
ment that  they  were  not  bound  to  accept  the  venture  as 
their  own  if  they  did  not  wish  to,  and  that  he  and  the 
London  partners  would  be  entirely  responsible  for  it,  if 
they  in  turn  would  allow  them  to  dispose  of  the  cargo 
which  the  ship  had  brought.  Accordingly  the  Pilgrims 
paid  him  a  considerable  sum  for  part  of  the  goods,  and 
allowed  him  to  sell  the  remainder  in  Boston.  Some- 
what later  they  received  a  letter  from  Shirley  and  a 
statement  from  Winslow  declaring  that  the  responsibility 
had  been  theirs  and  not  Allerton's  in  the  first  place  and 
that  the  loss  was  now  theirs  in  the  second  place.    Nor 


234  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

would  the  English  partners  make  allowance  for  the 
money  paid  Allerton  in  accordance  with  the  verbal 
agreement. 

Such  was  the  result  of  a  failure  to  insist  upon  written 
documents  in  every  case,  and  to  insist  upon  a  strict  and 
prompt  accounting  every  year,  instead  of  allowing  the 
English  partners  to  keep  the  books  as  they  pleased  and 
have  an  accounting  at  the  end  of  a  term  of  years.  Indeed, 
the  ignorance  of  the  Pilgrims  about  business  seems  al- 
most incredible,  and  their  carelessness  would  seem  al- 
most criminal,  if  it  were  not  so  entirely  obvious  that  it 
proceeded  from  inexperience  and  from  guileless  faith  in 
the  integrity  of  all  Church  members.  They  attempted 
literally  to  deal  with  Allerton  and  Shirley  in  accordance 
with  the  Golden  Rule,  and,  even  after  it  became  clear 
that  Shirley  was  robbing  them,  gave  him  the  benefit  of 
the  doubt,  and  sent  two  or  three  more  shiploads  of  beaver, 
all  of  which  he  promptly  appropriated  to  his  own  use. 
Not  only  were  the  Pilgrims  out  at  pocket,  but  they 
never  entirely  regained  their  confidence  in  their  fel- 
lowmen. 

Before  1640,  the  fur  trade  had  fallen  off  considerably 
and  was  no  longer  particularly  profitable.  The  settle- 
ment of  New  England  had  driven  out  the  fur-bearing 
animals  and  the  hunters  upon  whom  the  Pilgrims  had 
depended.  The  Kennebec  had  been  sold  by  the  colony 
to  individuals;  the  post  on  the  Penobscot  had  been  cap- 
tured by  the  French;  the  Connecticut  trade  had  been  lost 
by  the  settlement  of  the  Valley  Towns;  the  trade  route 
across  Cape  Cod  was  no  longer  profitable  because  the 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  colonies  entirely  absorbed 
the  trade  of  the  Indians  on  Long  Island  Sound.  To 
Salem  and  Gloucester  had  come  Puritan  emigrants,  who 


Economic  Privilege,  1627-1657  235 

promptly  took  possession  of  the  fishing  stage  on  Cape 
Ann,  and  drew  to  themselves  as  well  the  trade  of  the 
annual  English  fishing  fleet. 

Fortunately,  the  settlement  of  New  England  had  also 
created  an  extremely  brisk  market  for  cattle  and  corn 
with  such  large  profits  that  the  leaders  gave  up  the  Indian 
trade  and  went  to  cattle  raising.1  In  1640  came  a  sudden 
fall  in  the  prices  of  cattle  which  they  were  all  at  a  loss  to 
explain.2  Truth  was  that  the  cessation  of  the  Great 
Emigration,  due  to  events  in  England,  caused  a  fall  in 
the  hitherto  unprecedented  demand.  Partly  too  the 
fall  in  prices  was  due  to  the  sudden  increase  of  supply  at 
Plymouth  and  elsewhere,  which  had  been  stimulated  by 
the  abnormal  prices  of  the  past  few  years.  Nevertheless, 
cattle  continued  throughout  the  history  of  the  colony 
to  be  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  wealth.  The  economic 
structure  never  became  highly  developed  and  seems, 
never  during  the  period  of  the  colony's  independence  to 
have  achieved  the  basis  of  a  money  economy.  John 
Cotton  Junior's  salary  was  paid  him  as  late  as  1677,  one- 
third  in  wheat,  butter,  tar,  or  shingles;  one-third  in  rye, 
peas,  or  malt;  and  one-third  in  Indian  corn,  each  valued 
in  money  but  not  paid  in  money.  "It  is  further  agreed 
that  if  any  will  pay  their  Rates  or  part  thereof  in  money 
they  shall  have  liberty  so  to  do."3  They  repaired  the 
Minister's  house  at  a  cost  of  £60  and  provided  that  one- 
half  of  the  assessment  should  be  paid  in  any  kind  of  corn 
or  in  tar,  provided  the  tar  was  salable  and  provided  it 
could  be  accepted  at  twelve  pence  per  barrel  cheaper  than 

1  Bradford,  History,  436. 

2  Ibid.,  448,  458.    See  also  on  cattle  values  the  notes  in  Goodwin, 
Pilgrim  Republic,  296. 

3  Records  of  the  Town  of  Plymouth,  154. 


236  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

the  market  price  in  Boston.  The  other  half  was  to  be 
paid  in  wheat,  barley,  peas,  butter,  or  money.1 

Industry  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word  never  devel- 
oped at  Plymouth  at  all.2  As  early  as  1639,  every  house- 
holder was  compelled  to  sow  one  square  rod  of  hemp 
and  flax.  A  supply  of  bog  iron  was  discovered  and  worked 
up  at  Taunton  by  the  Brothers  Leonard,  which  was  dur- 
ing colonial  days  of  some  importance.  Saw-mills,  grist- 
mills, brick-yards  appear  gradually  during  the  century, 
but  beyond  a  very  moderate  manufacture  of  materials 
immediately  useful  at  Plymouth,  industry  as  such  did 
not  appear  during  the  colony's  independence.  There 
was  indeed,  except  the  limited  supply  of  iron  and  tar, 
no  raw  material  which  could  have  been  manufactured. 
It  was  simpler,  easier,  more  profitable  to  raise  cattle,  to 
sell  dressed  lumber  and  tar  in  Boston,  than  it  was  to 
attempt  to  make  articles  which  could  be  bought  much 
cheaper  in  Boston  or  in  England.  The  colonies  in  gen- 
eral depended  down  to  the  American  Revolution  upon 
the  purchase  of  manufactured  goods  in  England,  and 
Plymouth  was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  There  were  of 
course  made  at  Plymouth,  as  in  all  parts  of  America, 
rough  cloth,  candles,  soap,  woodenware,  and  simple 
furniture,  but  such  goods  were  commonly  made  to  order 
rather  than  for  general  sale  in  the  open  market  at  a  profit. 

The  accumulation  of  wealth  at  Plymouth  never  ap- 
proached that  of  the  Bay  Colony.  The  total  was  in- 
finitely less  and  the  proportion  per  capita  was  also 

1  Records  of  the  Town  of  Plymouth,  58. 

2  There  are  a  few  notes  in  Weeden,  Economic  History  of  New 
England,  I;  Goodwin,  Pilgrim  Republic;  and  the  histories  of  the 
town  of  Plymouth  by  Davis  and  Baylies.  Something  can  be 
gleaned  from  the  colony  and  town  records. 


Economic  Privilege,  162J-165J  237 

smaller.  The  tendency  has  therefore  been  to  regard 
Plymouth  as  an  economic  failure.  No  error  could  be 
greater.  Seven  decades  proved  the  colony  an  undoubted 
economic  success,  a  real  demonstration  of  what  could  be 
done  in  the  wilderness  with  practically  no  capital  at  all. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Pilgrims  started  heavily 
in  debt,  owing  the  merchants  for  everything  except  the 
clothes  on  their  backs  and  the  shoes  on  their  feet.  What- 
ever they  created  at  Plymouth  was  wrung  from  a  poor 
soil  in  an  unfavorable  situation  by  the  labor  of  their  own 
hands.  Nor  did  the  colony  grow  by  great  accessions  of 
colonists  who  brought  with  them  accumulated  wealth 
from  England.  Plymouth  in  1691  represented  the  labor 
of  the  Pilgrims  themselves  and  of  their  descendants  and 
certainly  was  an  economic  success.  The  wills  of  the  first 
comers,  who  landed  practically  without  anything,  show 
that  they  had  not  only  supported  themselves  at  Plym- 
outh during  life,  and  paid  their  indebtedness,  but  had 
accumulated  what  would  have  ranked  in  England  at  the 
time  as  a  comfortable  property  for  farmers  or  artisans. 
Standish,  for  instance,  had  landed  without  property  as 
a  paid  employee  of  the  Merchants,  and  had  migrated  to 
Duxbury  in  163 1  with  one  cow  and  some  little  personalty. 
He  died  in  1656  worth  £140  in  land  and  buildings  and 
£358  7s.  in  personalty.  His  one  cow  had  become  five 
horses  and  colts,  four  oxen,  ten  cows  and  calves,  eleven 
sheep,  and  fourteen  swine.1  Howland,  who  had  also  come 
so  far  as  we  know  without  property,  died  possessed  of 
£157  of  personalty,  including  three  horses,  seventeen 
cows  and  oxen,  thirteen  swine,  forty-five  sheep,  and 

1  Many  Plymouth  wills  have  been  printed  in  full  in  the  Mayflower 
Descendant  and  are  a  mine  of  economic  and  social  information 
hitherto  little  worked.    Standish's  will  is  in  vol.  Ill,  155. 


238  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

nearly  two  whole  pounds  in  ready  money.1  The  Browns, 
who  arrived  from  England  in  1634  with  some  property, 
died  in  1662  worth  £655  and  £350  respectively.2  The 
elder  had  ten  oxen,  four  bulls,  twenty  cows,  twenty 
young  cattle,  eighteen  sheep,  eleven  pigs,  and  nine  horses. 
His  personalty  included  red  leather  chairs,  a  silver  bowl, 
" Eight  India  table  clothes,"  and  a  bed  "in  the  Parlour," 
estimated  at  £24,  but  only  six  shillings  in  money.  Even 
the  poorer  were  able  to  bequeath  in  their  wills  from 
twenty-five  to  fifty  pounds  of  personalty  as  early  as  1633, 
and  within  five  years  after  the  enumeration  and  division 
of  twelve  cattle  in  1627,  most  people  had  at  least  one 
cow  or  heifer,  with  a  number  of  goats,  swine  in  the  tens, 
and  great  numbers  of  poultry.3  The  evidence  of  the 
Plymouth  wills  is  absolutely  conclusive :  Plymouth  was  a 
decided  economic  success  and  the  growth  of  wealth 
after  1627  was  rapid  and  permanent.  Each  decade  the 
wills  bequeath  decidedly  more  and  after  1660  the  amounts 
become  really  considerable  and  indicate  real  comfort  and 
prosperity. 

1  Mayflower  Descendant,  II,  73. 

*Ibid.,  XVIII,  15-22. 

3  See  the  wills  in  the  Mayflower  Descendant,  I,  29,  65,  79,  82,  83, 
154,  157,  197,  203.  Compare  with  these  those  of  the  later  period, 
ibid.,  II,  14,  25,  39;  XI,  198;  XVIII,  41.  Steven  Hopkins  died 
in  1644,  owner  of  the  chief  inn  or  hotel,  and  left  in  cash — six  pence. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

SOCIAL  LIFE,    1627-1657 

If  there  was  one  fact  clearer  to  the  Pilgrims  than  an- 
other, it  was  their  duty  to  practice  in  daily  life  the  truth 
as  they  felt  God  had  revealed  it  to  them.  In  the  Bible 
were  recorded,  if  only  they  could  comprehend  them,  the 
infallible  directions  for  individual  conduct;  they  had  but 
to  read  and  obey.  Were  they  so  sunk  in  ignorance  and 
indifference  as  not  to  know  the  unreality  and  falsity  of 
this  life  as  compared  with  the  glory  and  splendor  of  the 
life  to  come?  Had  they  not  been  assured  that  only  he 
who  loses  his  life  shall  find  it,  and  that  he  who  putteth 
his  hand  to  the  plow  must  not  look  back?  Social  life 
at  Plymouth  was  an  attempt  to  live  literally  in  accordance 
with  the  teachings  of  the  Scriptures.  Because  of  their 
inability  to  create  the  sort  of  social  atmosphere  in  which 
they  wished  their  children  to  grow  up,  they  had  left 
Holland.  Now  that  God  had  vouchsafed  them  success 
in  their  experiment,  had  assured  them  of  the  correctness 
of  their  interpretation  of  His  intentions,  they  could  pro- 
ceed in  confidence  to  live  and  act  in  accordance  with 
His  Word.  As  year  followed  year  and  found  the  colony 
growing  in  strength  and  prosperity,  their  joyous  belief 
in  the  Divine  approval  grew  into  a  certainty  which  no 
logic  could  strengthen  nor  argument  shake.  They  were 
accordingly  to  use  their  authority  in  Church  and  State 
to  live  a  serious  purposeful  life  such  as  befitted  God's 
elect,  to  aid  those  who  had  not  yet  seen  the  Light  to 
comprehend  it,  and  to  assist  them  in  keeping  their  feet 

239 


240  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

from  the  paths  of  unconscious  wrongdoing.  Conscious 
evil  none  should  do.  The  machinery  of  Church  and 
State  should  repress  the  wicked  and  reclaim  the  way- 
ward, whose  trustees  the  leaders  believed  themselves 
to  be. 

The  most  difficult  thing  for  us  of  the  twentieth  century 
to  grasp  about  the  Pilgrims  is  the  literal  domination  of 
temporal  life  by  the  spiritual.  Their  history  is  much 
more  nearly  a  study  in  the  psychology  of  religion  and 
its  relation  to  the  necessities  of  political  and  economic 
life  than  a  political  history  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word.  We  must  become  accustomed  to  looking  through 
the  temporal  fact  to  the  spiritual  truth  behind  it,  in- 
herent in  it.  Of  the  many  facts  which  must  be  spiritual- 
ized to  be  understood,  none  is  more  essential  than  that 
minute  regulation  of  daily  life,  which  seems  to  us  as 
we  read  about  it  so  intolerable  and  incomprehensible. 
It  was  to  them  a  consecration  and  a  God  given  oppor- 
tunity never  to  return.  They  might  indeed  repent  one 
day  of  the  shortcomings  of  the  day  before,  but  never 
again  in  the  whole  of  eternity  would  they  have  the  op- 
portunity to  live  that  day  as  they  should  have.  They 
attempted  to  apply  an  unmnching  and  uncompromising 
idealism  to  the  problems  of  daily  life,  to  the  economic 
problems  of  existence,  and  to  methods  for  administering 
the  State.  The  system  was  an  end  in  itself,  not  a  means 
to  an  end,  unless  indeed  that  end  be  the  future  life. 
They  lived  it  because  they  believed  that  in  that  way  life 
should  be  lived.  They  urged  others  to  live  it  because 
they  believed  it  the  method  by  which  all  must  satisfy 
God.  If  we  can  almost  certainly  see  in  their  political 
ordinances  the  evidence  of  ulterior  purpose,  if  we  feel 
that  the  economic  life  was  consciously  shaped  to  further 


Social  Life,  1627-1657  241 

the  ecclesiastical  and  political,  to  make  difficult  the 
existence  at  Plymouth  of  those  not  deemed  suitable  In- 
habitants, we  must  not  bring  to  their  social  system,  if 
such  it  may  be  called,  any  such  feeling  of  ulterior  pur- 
pose. It  was  in  no  sense  intended  simply  for  the  repres- 
sion of  those  who  disagreed  with  them.  It  was  an  end 
in  itself — life  as  they  loved  to  live  it,  as  they  loved  to 
think  that  others  would  want  to  live  it. 

While  in  many  respects  Plymouth  was  democratic, 
the  social  life  in  the  colony  moved  along  definite  lines  of 
caste,  sharply  outlined  and  rigidly  observed.  These  repro- 
duced no  social  status  in  the  Old  World,  for  none  of  them 
had  possessed  in  England  or  Holland  anything  there 
recognized  as  social  status.  They  had  been  simple  tenant 
farmers/not  even  yeomen;  or  quite  undistinguished  ar- 
tisans and  tradesmen,  not  even  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury sense,  merchants.  The  new  caste  was  rather  a  fact 
than  a  system,  was  seen  to  exist  rather  than  was  called 
into  existence.  In  the  first  rank  were  the  leaders,  who 
arrogated  to  themselves  social  as  well  as  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical leadership,  and  who  assumed  gradually  titles 
with  which  they  had  been  familiar  in  England,  but  which 
had  in  the  main  at  Plymouth  no  such  connotation  as  the 
English  attached  to  them.  In  the  list  of  Freemen  of 
the  colony  entered  in  the  records  under  the  year  1636, 
there  are  one  hundred  and  thirteen  names.  After  four- 
teen of  these  we  have  the  abbreviation  "Gn,"  signifying, 
beyond  a  doubt,  "gentleman."  This  first  rank  of  the 
Pilgrim  hierarchy  was  possessed  by  Bradford,  Winslow, 
Prence,  William  Collier,  John  Alden,  Timothy  Hather- 
ley,  John  Jenney,  Steven  Hopkins,  John  Browne,  William 
Brewster,  John  Atwood,  Ralph  Smith,  and  Isaac  Aller- 
ton.     Standish  is  called  Captain,  but  not  Gentleman, 


242  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

and  Howland  simply  by  his  name.  One  is  indeed  sur- 
prised to  note  how  far  down  the  list  William  Brewster 
is  and  how  far  up  the  list  are  Prence,  Collier,  and  Alden. 
Twelve  names  bear  the  prefix  "Mr.,"  the  English  equiv- 
alent for  Master.  Several  of  these  were  clergymen, 
among  them  Reynor.  Smith,  however,  was  called 
Gentleman. 

These  titles  are  repeated  in  the  records  with  consider- 
able fidelity  wherever  these  names  appear,  although  the 
lesser  Gentlemen  sometimes  become  Master.  This  is 
never  the  case  with  Bradford,  Winslow,  and  Prence,  who 
no  doubt  had  much  to  do  with  the  editing  of  the  records. 
The  rest  of  the  Freemen  had  no  titles  in  this  list,  but 
we  find  several  of  them  elsewhere  referred  to  as  yeomen.1 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  none  of  these  men 
possessed  any  of  the  English  qualifications  for  Gentle- 
man or  Master,  and  that  the  best  of  them  scarcely  pos- 
sessed that  financial  competence  and  long  freedom  from 
anything  resembling  service  in  the  feudal  sense  which 
distinguished  the  yeoman  in  England.  Over  the  question 
whether  or  not  the  English  term,  Goodman,  should  be- 
come a  third  grade  in  the  social  hierarchy,  there  was 
considerable  controversy  between  Williams,  Smith,  and 
the  leaders.  The  latter  were  inclined  to  adopt  it.  The 
two  clergymen  objected  to  it  vehemently,  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  sinful  to  call  any  man  good,  with  the  obvious 
inference  that  in  their  opinion  the  men  to  whom  it  was 
to  be  applied  were  quite  the  contrary.  All  of  this  shows 
us  quite  clearly  that  social  distinctions  were  prized  and 
valued  at  Plymouth  far  more  than  one  would  have  sup- 
posed.2 

1  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  I,  41,  64,  75,  106. 

2  For  a  case  at  Swansea,  see  Baylies,  Plymouth,  II,  245-246. 


Social  Life,  1627-1657  243 

In  accordance  with  the  Calvinistic  system,  the  inter- 
ference of  the  leaders  in  the  daily  life  of  the  majority 
was  constant,  searching,  minute,  and  inquisitorial.  It 
must  not  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  they  were  less 
strict  with  themselves  than  with  others  or  that  they 
hesitated  to  accuse  and  punish  each  other  on  occasion. 
Bradford  indeed  expressed  his  amazement  that  any 
punishment  or  any  regulation  should  be  necessary  in  a 
group  of  people  like  the  Pilgrims,  that  any  misconduct  of 
any  sort  should  occur,  to  say  nothing  of  the  occasional 
commission  of  serious  crime.  But,  he  reflected  quite 
sagely  and  truly,  it  did  not  portend  a  greater  proportion 
of  evil  at  Plymouth  than  elsewhere  nor  a  more  consider- 
able degree  of  wrongdoing,  but  merely  the  fact  that 
the  inquisitorial  system  was  so  exceedingly  stringent 
that  every  minute  deviation  from  the  strict  rule  set  up 
by  the  Church  was  promptly  discovered  and  incon- 
tinently punished.1 

Indeed  there  was  perhaps  no  single  task  to  which  the 
Pilgrim  community  set  itself  with  greater  diligence  and 
enjoyment  than  that  of  watching  each  other,  nor  was 
there  any  phase  of  their  manifold  duties  which  they  per- 
formed with  greater  assiduity  than  that  of  complaining 
about  each  other.  The  ecclesiastical  and  civil  system 
sanctified  and  encouraged  tale-bearing,  spying,  and 
accusations.  In  a  small  colony,  where  everyone  lived 
very  much  together  and  could  not  get  far  apart,  where 
everyone's  affairs  were  conducted  under  everybody  else's 
eyes,  there  was  no  possibility  of  escape.  The  whole 
community  seem  to  have  derived  a  grim  satisfaction 
from  thus  investigating  each  other's  affairs  and  punishing 
each  other's  peccadillos.  Attendance  at  Church  was 
1  History,  459-461. 


244  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

compulsory  for  all,  whether  Church  members  or  not,  but 
was  scarcely  a  hardship  in  a  community  where  the  rule 
against  Sabbath  breaking  was  enforced  with  the  utmost 
severity  by  the  civil  authorities.  Not  many  infringed  it. 
One  man  persisted  in  working  in  his  garden,  another  in 
the  tar  pits;  one  was  punished  for  hunting  deer  on  Sun- 
day; another  was  " sharply  reproved"  for  writing  a  letter 
on  Sunday,  "at  least  in  the  evening  somewhat  too  soon."  l 
Steven  Hopkins  was  accused  in  1637  of  allowing  men  to 
drink  in  his  inn  "on  the  Lord's  day,  before  the  meeting 
be  ended"  and  allowing  servants  and  others,  both  before 
and  after  meetings,  to  drink  "more  than  for  ordinary 
refreshing."  2    But  such  cases  were  rare. 

The  Pilgrims  observed  no  holidays.  Christmas, 
Easter,  and  the  ordinary  Church  festivals  were  an  abom- 
ination to  them  because  they  smacked  of  Papacy.  The 
King's  birthday  they  naturally  did  not  celebrate.  There 
seems  indeed  to  have  been  but  one  attempt  at  the  cel- 
ebration of  a  European  holiday.  The  first  Christmas  the 
whole  colony  worked  in  entire  harmony  very  hard  all 
day.  The  second  Christmas,  some  of  those  just  come 
upon  the  Fortune  were  called  by  Bradford  on  Christmas 
morning  to  their  work  in  the  fields  as  usual,  and  "excused 
themselves  and  said  it  wente  against  their  consciences 
to  work  on  that  day,"  an  answer  which  nonplussed  the 
leaders  not  a  little.  But  they  went  away  and  left  them. 
When  they  came  home  at  noon  to  dinner,  they  found 
them  in  the  street,  pitching  the  bar,  playing  stool  ball, 
and  other  good  old  English  games.     Bradford  went 

1  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  I,  86;  II,  140,  156.  The  authorities 
admitted  that  drawing  eel  pots  on  Sunday  might  be  necessary. 
Ibid.,  II,  4. 

2  Ibid.,  L  68. 


Social  Life,  1627-1657  245 

straight  to  them  "and  tooke  away  their  implements,  and 
tould  them  that  was  against  his  conscience  that  they 
should  play  and  others  worke.  If  they  made  the  keeping 
of  it  mater  of  devotion  let  them  kepe  their  houses  but 
ther  should  be  no  gaming  or  revelling  in  the  streets. 
Since  which  time  nothing  hath  been  atempted  that  way, 
at  least  openly."  }  Smoking  the  Pilgrims  practiced. 
Tobacco  was  grown  at  Plymouth  to  some  extent,  more 
was  bought  from  the  Indians,  and  after  the  first  decade 
was  imported  from  Virginia.  But  the  regulations  for 
smoking  were  strict  and  men  were  fined  again  and  again 
"for  drinking  tobacco  in  the  heighway."  2  Apparently, 
a  man  might  smoke  in  his  own  house  or  in  the  fields,  but 
he  might  not  smoke  in  Plymouth  streets  nor  in  the 
meeting  house. 

The  most  considerable  body  of  regulations  of  a  social 
character  were  those  regulating  marriage  and  the  rela- 
tion of  the  sexes.  The  Pilgrims  never  could  understand 
why  there  should  be  any  deviation  from  strict  morality 
and  invariably  punished  with  almost  brutal  severity  the 
slightest  infraction.  Dorothy  Temple,  dishonored  by 
one  of  the  undesirables  of  the  colony  and  her  crime  re- 
vealed by  the  birth  of  her  child,  was  publicly  whipped 
until  she  fainted  under  the  lash.  Men  honorable  enough 
to  marry  the  women  they  had  ruined,  were  publicly 
whipped,  often  more  than  once,  while  the  wife  sat  in  the 
stocks.  One  Mr.  Fels  came  to  Plymouth  in  1627  and  had 
in  his  house  a  comely  maidservant,  about  whose  relations 
with  him  scandal  was  presently  whispered.  Although 
the  Pilgrims  were  unable  to  prove  anything,  they  so 
frightened  him  and  his  whole  family  that,  when  after- 

1  Bradford,  History,  134-135. 

2  Records,  I,  106;  IV,  47. 


246  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

wards  it  appeared  that  the  maid  was  with  child,  they  all 
decamped  in  a  small  boat,  panic-stricken.  They  nearly 
lost  their  lives  in  the  attempted  flight  and  were  forced 
to  return  to  Plymouth,  where  they  were  dealt  with  with 
the  greatest  severity.1  There  were  in  the  whole  history 
of  Plymouth  until  1691,  only  six  divorces  and  not  many 
cases  of  any  sort,  type,  or  variety  of  immoral  conduct.2 

The  regulation  of  individual  conduct  further  provided 
that  no  man  should  strike  his  wife,  and  that  no  woman 
should  beat  her  husband  under  the  penalty  of  the  fine 
of  £10.  One  woman  indeed  was  presented  "for  beating 
and  reviling  her  husband  and  egging  her  children  to 
healp  her,  biding  them  knock  him  in  the  head  and  wishing 
his  victials  might  coake  him."  The  significant  entry 
in  the  margin  follows — "Punished  att  home."3  One 
Thomas  Williams,  a  bond-servant,  fell  into  a  dispute  with 
his  mistress,  apparently  because  he  was  unwilling  to  per- 
form some  task  or  had  failed  to  do  so  to  her  satisfaction. 
She  tried  to  clinch  the  matter  by  exhorting  him  to  fear 
God  and  to  do  his  duty.  He  answered  that  he  neither 
feared  God  * '  nor  the  diuell."  For  this  horrible  blasphemy 
he  was  brought  into  court,  witnesses  collected,  and  an 
infinity  of  trouble  taken.  Bradford  would  have  had  him 
soundly  whipped,  but  the  majority  disagreed  and  he  was 
simply  reprimanded.4 

How  to  regulate  the  relation  of  the  sexes  in  courtship 
puzzled  the  Pilgrim  fathers  considerably.  Finally  in 
1638  a  law  was  passed  that  no  man  should  propose  to  a 
girl  without  first  getting  the  consent  of  her  parents  or  of 

1  Bradford,  History,  265. 

2  Goodwin,  Pilgrim  Republic,  596-597,  590-600. 

3  Records,  III,  75,  1654-1655. 

4  Ibid.,  I,  35,  1635. 


Social  Life,  1627-1657  247 

her  master,  in  case  she  were  a  bond  servant.  There  were 
a  good  many  cases  of  men  punished  for  making  offers  of 
marriage  "  irregularly "  and  of  girls  similarly  punished 
for  accepting  them.1  The  most  celebrated  is  that  of 
Arthur  Howland,  Jr.,  who  found  the  daughter  of  Gov- 
ernor Prence  pleasant  to  look  upon,  and  apparently  quite 
willing  to  receive  his  advances.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
whatever  that  he  courted  her  in  an  eminently  respectable 
and  sober  way,  and,  like  a  good  American,  finally  asked 
her  to  marry  him.  The  father  was  furious  with  rage, 
brought  the  swain  before  the  Court  of  Assistants,  and 
accused  him  with  having  "  disorderly  and  unrighteously 
endeavored  to  obtain  the  affections"  of  his  daughter 
Elizabeth.  Howland  was  compelled  to  pay  a  fine  of 
£5,  to  produce  sureties  for  good  behavior,  and  to  deposit 
a  bond  of  £50  that  he  would  not  again  propose  to  the  girl 
in  that  same  fashion.  Some  months  later  he  felt  it  wise 
" solemnly  and  seriously"  to  engage  himself  never  to 
approach  her  in  any  way  again.  No  doubt  this  was  the 
result  of  the  fact  that  the  young  people  were  not  quite 
able  to  take  their  eyes  off  of  each  other,  nor  to  keep  en- 
tirely apart  in  so  small  a  colony.  In  the  end  Prence  re- 
lented and  the  couple  were  married.2 

The  general  impression  which  we  have  been  given  of 
Pilgrim  life  as  dire,  sad,  and  forbidding,  is  certainly 
wrong.  Proper  conduct  was  expected  of  everyone,  and 
the  social  machinery,  as  well  as  that  of  Church  and 
State,  was  devised  to  aid  the  individual  to  keep  his  feet 
in  the  narrow  path  of  rectitude,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
true  that  life  at  Plymouth  was  so  exceedingly  unpleasant 
as  we  have  been  taught  to  believe.    At  the  same  time 

1  Records,  I,  97 ;  III,  5. 

2  Ibi4-,  IV,  140-141,  March  5,  1666-1667;  July  2,  1667. 


248  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

neither  the  letters  nor  the  records  give  us  even  a  glimpse 
of  anything  resembling  society  or  anything  mildly  ap- 
proaching dinners,  parties,  or  entertainments,  serious  or 
otherwise.  For  the  upper  ranks  of  the  social  hierarchy, 
a  quiet  evening  of  conversation  on  serious  and  suitable 
themes,  enlivened  with  a  studiously  moderate  portion  of 
beer,  ale,  or  wine,  seems  to  have  been  all  they  allowed 
themselves.  This  too  in  the  privacy  of  their  homes,  with 
none  present  but  the  Elect.  Candles,  too,  were  expen- 
sive; the  hours  of  work  long  for  everybody,  certainly 
until  1640;  and  only  in  the  long  winter  afternoons  and 
evenings  can  the  leaders  have  permitted  themselves  such 
relaxation.  Such  intercourse  must  be  what  Bradford 
had  in  mind  when  he  wrote  that  Brewster  was  of  "a 
very  cherfull  spirite,  very  sociable  and  pleasante  amongst 
his  freinds.',  l  But  among  the  lower  ranks  of  the  social 
hierarchy,  for  the  Inhabitants  and  the  unprivileged,  es- 
pecially for  the  servants,  there  was  an  abundance  of 
simple  amusement,  such  as  they  had  been  accustomed 
to  have  in  England.2  This  the  leaders  tolerated  and 
condoned  as  harmless  for  those  not  possessed  of  suffi- 
cient intelligence  and  mentality  to  devote  themselves 
entirely  to  spiritual  contemplation.  Out-of-door  games 
like  bowls  and  pitch  bar  seem  to  have  been  commonly 
played.  Inns  and  taverns  were  licensed  by  the  author- 
ities,3 at  which  beer,  wine,  and  strong  waters  were  to 
be  had,  and  in  these  a  good  many  really  hilarious  scenes 

1  Bradford,  History,  492. 

2  The  most  cursory  reading  of  the  Records  will  leave  no  doubt  on 
this  point. 

3  James  Leonard,  innkeeper  of  Taunton,  lost  his  wife  by  death, 
and  was  straightway  deprived  of  his  license  on  the  ground  that  he 
was  now  unfitted  to  keep  an  inn! 


Social  Life,  1627-1657  249 

were  enacted  by  servants  and  apprentices.  Cards  are 
not  infrequently  mentioned  in  the  court  recoroVttnd  the 
fact  that  one  man  was  fined  for  playing  cards  on  Sunday 
raises  the  presumption  that  he  might  have  played  on  a 
week  day  without  breaking  the  ordinance.1  Dancing  2 
seems  not  to  have  been  countenanced. 

In  fact,  it  is  one  thing  to  realize  that  Plymouth  was 
a  place  where  literal  idealism  was  attempted  and  a  very 
real  conformity  to  the  ordinances  expected  in  letter  and 
spirit,  and  quite  another  to  make  out  of  it  an  impossible 
abode  for  human  beings.  The  sins  against  which  the 
leaders  legislate  point  to  a  fairly  normal  English  social 
life  for  all  except  Church  members,3  and  both  legislation, 
and  the  punishment  meted  out  to  enforce  it,  were  in 
the  nature  of  regulation  rather  than  of  repression  or 
prohibition.  They  must  not  amuse  themselves  on  Sun- 
day and  they  must  come  to  Church.  They  must  drink 
only  for  "refreshing"  and  not  to  bestiality.  There  seem 
indeed  to  have  been  numerous  grades  of  offence  with 
liquor,  leading  all  the  way  from  excess  "upon  refreshing" 
to  plain  drunkenness,  beastly  drunkenness,  filthy  drunk- 
enness, and  a  drunkenness  of  so  extreme  a  degree  that 
the  details  were  necessarily  related  to  the  court.  In  1636 
a  definition  was  made  of  the  proper  consumption  of 
liquor,  which  provided  that  wine  or  strong  water  should 

1  Records,  IV,  42,  1663. 

2  Mercy  Tubbs  was  to  answer  for  "mixed  dancing."  Was  there 
another  variety  which  was  permissible?  Records,  III,  5,  165 1- 
1652. 

3  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Widow  Ring  possessed  in  163 1 
these  works:  "1  bible  1  dod.  1  plea  for  Infants  1  mine  of  Rome  1 
Troubler  of  the  Church  of  Amsterdam  1  Garland  of  vertuous 
dames."  This  last  seems  not  thoroughly  ecclesiastical  in  tone. 
Mayflower  Descendant,  I,  34. 


250  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

not  be  sold  or  drunk  except  at  a  licensed  inn.  There  the 
innkeeper  should  not  sell  the  townsmen  any  strong  liquor 
at  all  and  only  one  Winchester  quart  of  beer,  which  re- 
tailed at  two  pence.  To  strangers  at  their  first  coming, 
he  might  sell  strong  water  to  the  extent  of  two  pence 
worth.1  Here  is  very  evidently  the  definition  of  drinking 
for  " refreshing"  only.  This  strict  control  and  this  in- 
quisitorial system  proved  very  distasteful  to  a  good 
many  who  came  to  Plymouth  beside  Oldham  and  Mor- 
ton of  Merrimount.  The  strictness  of  regulation  was  far 
greater  than  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and  the 
colony  was  so  much  smaller  that  its  enforcement  was 
simple  and  punishment  for  infractions  certain.  The 
social  atmosphere  was  one  reason  why  people  did  not 
like  Plymouth,  but  it  was  after  all  merely  a  corollary 
of  a  dislike  founded,  like  the  system  itself,  on  a  lack  of 
agreement  with  the  Church  and  a  desire  for  civil  and 
economic  privilege  without  fulfilling  the  ecclesiastical 
prerequisites.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the 
social  ordinances  at  Plymouth  were  disagreeable  to  the 
overwhelming  majority  or  that  it  was  necessary  at  any 
time  to  enforce  them,  by  means  of  civil  authority,  upon 
more  than  an  insignificant  minority. 

Seventeenth  century  Calvinism  was  unquestionably 
hostile  to  the  aesthetic  in  life,  to  the  beautiful  in  music, 
in  art,  in  furniture,  or  in  clothing.  Its  influence  on 
social  life  and  social  environment  was  almost  as  great 
at  Plymouth  as  in  Scotland  and  at  Geneva.  At  the 
same  time  the  very  real  simplicity  at  Plymouth  was  not 
wholly  the  result  of  choice.  Poverty  is  a  powerful  dic- 
tator of  frugality,  though  the  Pilgrims  did  not,  when 
they  could,  purchase  luxurious  clothes  or  furniture,  or 
1  Records,  I,  38. 


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Social  Life,  1627-16 57  251 

attempt  the  cultivation  of  music  or  the  fine  arts.  But 
Plymouth  was  by  no  means  made  intentionally  ugly, 
nor  did  they  attempt  to  make  themselves  unbecoming  in 
appearance  or  uncomfortable.  The  hostility  to  the 
aesthetic  was  a  tendency  rather  than  a  literal  fact. 
Probably  no  Puritans  or  Pilgrims  ever  wore  at  any  time 
such  garb  as  modern  artists  have  placed  upon  them. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  the  early  Puritans  at  the  time 
of  Elizabeth  and  James  I  wore  any  distinctive  clothes. 
The  Pilgrims  themselves  were  poor  country  people  and 
certainly  never  wore  "stylish"  clothes  in  England  or 
Holland.  A  simple  smock  and  trousers  of  coarse  cloth, 
a  simple  gown  of  ample  folds  for  the  women,  heavy 
shoes,  and  either  no  hats  at  all  or  caps  of  skins  must 
have  been  the  rule  in  the  first  years.  Close  cut  hair  the 
men  wore  as  in  England  and  Holland,  where  it  was  the 
rule  for  the  lower  classes,  long  hair  being  the  mark  of  the 
gentleman  only  and  indicating  not  only  wealth,  but 
social  status.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
Pilgrims  and  Massachusetts  Puritans  before  1650  wore 
the  sort  of  clothes  common  in  England  after  the  Civil 
Wars  had  produced  a  distinctive  dress  for  the  Parlia- 
mentarians different  from  that  worn  by  the  Cavaliers. 

Nor  was  Plymouth  clad  in  black  and  gray,  with  tall, 
ugly  hats  for  the  men  and  hoods  for  the  women  of  un- 
attractive design,  void  of  ribbons  or  laces.  On  Sunday 
indeed  the  dignitaries  wore  black  gowns,  as  was  the  rule 
in  the  Calvinist  Churches  abroad.  But  Elder  Brewster's 
wardrobe  contained  a  violet-colored  cloth  coat,  a  pair  of 
black  silk  stockings,  a  doublet,  and  various  other  gar- 
ments such  as  a  fairly  well-to-do  Englishman  of  no  par- 
ticular rank  might  have  worn.  Since  there  were  tailors 
and  their  apprentices  at  Plymouth,  there  can  be  little 


252  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

doubt  that  they  made  clothes.  We  also  hear  of  red  silk 
stockings  obtained  in  Boston  l  and  find  in  the  inventories 
of  the  effects  of  persons  deceased  all  sorts  of  garments  of 
silk,  satin,  woolen,  cotton,  and  linen,  of  a  variety  of 
shades  and  hues  which  we  by  no  means  would  consider 
"sad"  or  sombre.  Red,  blue,  purple,  violet,  and  green 
were  common,  besides  the  expected  grays,  browns, 
whites,  and  blacks.  We  should  not  have  expected  to  see, 
however,  any  such  number  of  people  possessed  of  laces, 
ruffs,  and  petticoats,  of  napkins,  tablecloths,  sheets,  and 
handkerchiefs.2 

The  wills  published  in  the  last  ten  years  have  altered 
very  much  our  conception  of  dress  and  household  luxury 
at  Plymouth.  A  very  poor  woman  owned  a  looking 
glass,3  for  which,  if  tradition  were  dependable,  the  Pil- 
grim mothers  had  no  uses.  But  looking  glasses  were 
common  and  presume  articles  of  dress  to  be  adjusted 
with  their  aid  and  some  degree  of  attention  to  appear- 
ances. One  Mistress  Ann  Atwoods  left  a  total  estate 
worth  £24  and  nevertheless  had  a  "turky  Mohear  petty- 

1  Records,  I,  93.  Bradford  speaks  of  Brewster's  dislike  of  those 
who  became  haughty  "being  rise  from  nothing  and  haveing  litle 
els  in  them  to  comend  them  but  a  few  fine  cloaths."    History,  492. 

2  One  poor  man  died  in  1633,  possessed  of  a  "satten  sute,"  two 
ruffs,  an  embroidered  silk  garter,  and  a  "cap  with  silver  lace  on 
it."  Mayflower  Descendant,  I,  83.  Another,  who  was  so  poor 
that  he  owned  only  three-quarters  of  a  cow,  had  in  1633  a  feather 
bed,  bolster,  blankets,  a  green  rug,  sheets,  tablecloths,  napkins, 
"pillowbeeres,"  cushions,  a  chair  bed,  and  sundry  pots  and  kettles. 
The  whole  was  valued  at  £71.  Ibid.,  I,  157.  A  woman,  whose 
whole  property  was  worth  in  1633  only  £20,  had  aprons,  napkins, 
a  tablecloth,  and  towels.    Ibid.,  I,  82. 

3  Godbert  Godbertson  and  wife,  1633.  Mayflower  Descendant, 
I,  154-155- 


Social  Life ,  1627-165'/  253 

coat/'  "a  silke  Mohear  petticoat,"  a  " green  phillip  and 
Chyna  petticoat";  "one  old  silk  grogrum  (GroGrain?) 
gowne,"  with  red  broadcloth,  French  serge,  and  green 
aprons.  There  were  also  four  lace  handkerchiefs,  four 
pairs  of  lace  cuffs,  a  whole  dozen  of  stomachers,  six  "head 
clothes,"  a  lace  scarf,  a  "velvet  muffe,"  a  riding  suit,  with 
much  linen,  napkins,  tablecloths,  many  sheets  and  pillow 
cases.  There  were  as  well  silver  bowls  and  spoons,  glass 
bottles,  much  pewter,  brass,  and  iron,  with  cushioned 
chairs  and  stools.1 

The  houses  were  simple,  plain,  substantial,  but  by 
no  means  poverty  stricken.  They  were  built  of  hewn 
plank  and  those  erected  after  1628  had  plank  roofs  in- 
stead of  thatch.  The  first  chimneys  seem  to  have  been 
of  sticks  plastered  with  clay,  but,  proving  inflammable, 
they  were  forbidden,  and  the  later  chimneys  were  prob- 
ably of  rough  stone,  laid  in  clay,  as  the  majority  of  New 
England  chimneys  have  been  since.  Some  were  of  brick, 
for  there  was  in  Plymouth  as  early  as  1639  a  bricklayer 
with  an  apprentice.  The  furniture  probably  did  not 
come  from  England,  but  was  made  up  by  carpenters  in 
Plymouth.  It  was  comfortable,  substantial,  and  plen- 
tiful after  1630.  For  the  first  decade  nothing  beyond  the 
indispensable  was  probably  to  be  had,  although  some  of 
the  leaders  may  have  imported  from  England  some 
pieces  of  oak  furniture.  Earthenware  was  not  common 
until  the  eighteenth  century  and  there  was  certainly 
no  Delftware  on  the  Mayflower.  Pewter  dishes  and 
spoons,  wooden  bowls  and  iron  knives  with  some  glass 
of  poor  quality  probably  completed  the  table  equipment 
of  most  Pilgrims.    There  were  some  silver  bowls  and 

1  Mayflower  Descendant,  XI,  200-206.  See  also  effects  of  Widow 
Ring  in  1631,  ibid.,  I,  29.    She  owned  a  "mingled  petticoat!" 


254  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

spoons.    Forks  they  certainly  did  not  use  in  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

While  the  influence  of  the  wilderness  was  not  very 
clear  in  the  clothes,  the  houses,  or  utensils,  its  effect 
upon  the  food  was  striking.  Corn  bread  instead  of  wheat 
bread  was  practically  universal,  beef,  mutton,  and  veal 
were  not  to  be  had  for  many  decades  because  the  animals 
were  too  valuable  for  other  purposes  to  be  killed  for  meat. 
After  1630,  milk,  butter,  and  cheese  seem  to  have  been 
plentiful  and  within  the  reach  of  nearly  everyone.  Fish 
and  game  from  the  first  had  been  always  obtainable  al- 
though not  much  eaten.  Oysters,  clams,  and  mussels 
the  Pilgrims  disliked  and  even  in  the  years  of  the  starva- 
tion they  had  to  be  hungry  indeed  before  they  would 
resort  to  them.  Beans  and  pumpkins  were  common 
staples  from  the  garden,  where  also  were  grown  peas, 
squash,  turnips,  parsnips,  and  onions.  Apple  and  pear 
trees  were  brought  from  England  and  the  former  were 
cultivated  with  some  success,  though  the  latter  did  not 
do  well.  The  wild  fruits,  grapes,  huckleberries,  and 
strawberries,  were  used  freely.  Cranberries,  the  typical 
product  of  Cape  Cod  and  the  Plymouth  district  today, 
were  not  known.  Beer  was  brewed  from  barley  and  rye 
and  its  use  was  universal.  Cider  was  soon  made  from 
apples  and  a  homemade  wine  from  wild  grapes.  After 
1640,  however,  French  and  Spanish  wines,  Dutch  and 
English  "strong  waters"  were  common,  although  sold 
under  strict  rules.  There  can  be  also  no  doubt  that  they 
were  used  with  extreme  temperance.  Tea,  coffee,  cocoa, 
and  potatoes,  seem  not  to  have  been  known  at  Plymouth 
before  1691.  Pie,  the  traditional  New  England  dish  in 
the  minds  of  the  ignorant,  was  certainly  not  made  in  the 
seventeenth  century.    On  the  other  hand,  hasty  pudding, 


Social  Life,  1627-16 57  255 

made  of  corn  meal  boiled  in  water  or  milk,  was  the  almost 
universal  breakfast  dish.  Beans  baked  with  pork  was 
also  a  Pilgrim  staple.  Puddings  or  bread  made  of  rye 
meal  (perhaps  a  forerunner  of  New  England  brown 
bread)  were  common.  So  were  soups  made  of  peas  and 
beans.  Boiled  peas,  squash,  and  other  vegetables  were 
common  adjuncts  of  Pilgrim  meals,  in  which  fresh  meat 
appeared  less  frequently  than  we  should  have  supposed. 
Wild  game  within  easy  hunting  range  of  Plymouth  seems 
to  have  been  killed  off  comparatively  early.  Fishing 
the  Pilgrims  never  enjoyed,  but  after  a  while  fresh  fish 
became  one  of  the  staples  of  diet. 

On  the  whole,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  life  at 
Plymouth,  while  never  in  one  sense  luxurious,  was  vastly 
more  comfortable  than  the  life  these  same  people  had 
led  in  England.  They  had  more  to  eat  and  wear  and  of 
better  quality.  They  lived  in  better  houses  than  at 
Scrooby,  and  had  more  land,  more  cattle,  and  a  future 
better  assured.  There  is  no  hint  that  they  were  not  well 
satisfied  with  the  results.  They  deemed  their  social  life 
adequate,  pleasant,  and  far  above  their  deserts  or  station, 
as  the  laws  of  God  might  define  the  one  or  the  social  code 
of  England  the  other. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

TENDENCY  AFTER  THE  DEATH  OF  BRADFORD 

The  political  history  of  Plymouth  from  the  death  of 
Bradford  until  its  absorption  into  Massachusetts  Bay 
in  1 69 1  is  if  anything  more  quiet  than  the  decades  imme- 
diately preceding.  For  two  or  three  years  some  little 
trouble  was  experienced  with  Quakers  who  attempted 
to  migrate  to  the  colony  or  to  pass  through  its  jurisdic- 
tion. In  1663  Governor  Prence,  who  had  succeeded 
Bradford,  moved  his  residence  from  Eastham  to  Plym- 
outh, an  event  of  real  importance  for  the  rehabilitation  of 
the  influence  of  Plymouth  proper.  In  1664  came  the 
visit  of  Royal  Commissioners  to  investigate  the  colony. 
A  certain  rephrasing  of  political  privilege  immediately 
preceded  and  followed  that  visit.  In  1667  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  Church  in  the  town  of  Plymouth  was  under- 
taken by  John  Cotton,  Jr.  In  1676  came  King  Philip's 
War.  Eight  years  later  the  New  England  Confederation 
held  its  last  session;  1686  saw  the  beginning  of  the 
jurisdiction  of  Andros  and  a  general  government  over 
all  New  England,  which  was  presently  overturned  by  the 
Glorious  Revolution  of  1689  and  the  new  Charter  of  1691. 
Such  is  a  fairly  inclusive  list  of  events  of  importance  in 
Pilgrim  history  for  this  period. 

The  death  of  Bradford  marked  the  end  of  an  epoch. 
The  old  leaders  had  passed  away.  Brewster  had  died 
in  1644  and  from  his  loss  the  Church  never  entirely 
recovered.  Winslow  had  left  in  1646  for  England  on  a 
mission  for  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony,  despite  the 

256 


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EDWARD    WINSLOW 

Painted  in  London  in  165 1 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  257 

opposition  of  Bradford  and  others.  There  he  had  been 
well  received  and  had  found  a  regime  thoroughly  con- 
genial. Cromwell  seems  to  have  regarded  him  as  a  use- 
ful man,  for  he  was  made  in  1652  chairman  of  a  joint 
commission  to  award  damages  for  vessels  destroyed  by 
the  Dutch  in  neutral  Denmark.  In  1655  he  was  made 
the  chief  of  three  commissioners,  his  associates  being 
none  other  than  Admiral  Venable  and  Admiral  Penn, 
father  of  the  noted  Quaker,  who  were  to  lead  an  expedi- 
tion to  the  West  Indies.  There  Winslow  died  of  fever 
May,  1655.  In  the  next  year  Standish  died.  He  had 
left  Plymouth  proper  in  1631  and  had  lived  at  Duxbury 
ever  since.  He  had  not  only  been  the  military  leader  of 
the  Pilgrims,  their  very  best  scholar  in  the  Indian  lan- 
guages, the  man  best  able  to  deal  with  the  Indians  on 
their  behalf,  but  he  had  also  been  an  exceedingly  useful 
man  in  government,  thoroughly  trusted  and  respected. 
In  the  spring  of  1657  Bradford  died  and  then  indeed  was 
the  older  generation  gone.  There  were  left  of  the  orig- 
inal group  of  leaders  only  Howland,  who  lived  till  1673, 
and  Alden,  who  died  in  1687,  neither  of  whom,  despite 
their  long  and  continued  usefulness  in  administration, 
had  ever  shown  capacity  for  leadership.  They  did  not 
at  this  time  possess  the  confidence  of  the  little  colony. 
William  Bradford,  Jr.,  who  ^Siis'to  have  been  a  man  of 
some  ability,  became  Assistant  fh§  year  after  his  father's 
death  and  was  reelected  for  twenty-four  years.  He  was 
also  for  several  years  Deputy- Governor  but  was  not  able 
to  fill  the  place  that  his  father  left. 

The  mantle  of  Bradford  fell  upon  Thomas  Prence,  who 
became  autocrat  of  Plymouth  accordingly  and  held  the 
reins  until  his  death  in  1673.  He  had  come  to  Plymouth 
in  162 1  on  the  Fortune  and  had  early  become  one  of  the 


258  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

leaders.  In  1634  he  had  married  the  daughter  of  William 
Collier,  the  richest  man  in  the  colony.  In  1657,  ne  nad 
already  been  Assistant  for  many  years,  Governor  twice, 
and  had  held  many  of  the  lesser  offices.  The  records  of 
the  First  Church  describe  him  as  "  excellently  qualified 
for  the  office  of  Governor.  He  had  a  countenance  full 
of  majesty  and  therein  as  well  as  otherwise  was  a  terror 
to  evil  doers."  "God  made  him  a  repairer  of  breaches 
and  a  meanes  to  setle  those  shakings  that  were  then 
threatening."  l  Prence  was  succeeded  as  Governor, 
after  a  few  years'  interim,  by  Thomas  Hinckley,  who  had 
been,  like  Prence  himself  during  Bradford's  long  reign, 
Assistant  from  1658  to  1680.  Hinckley  ruled  from  1680 
until  the  end  of  the  political  independence  of  Plymouth. 
The  first  problem  with  which  the  new  regime  had  to 
deal  was  that  of  the  Quakers.  In  March,  1657,  one  of 
this  brotherhood  entered  the  jurisdiction  from  Rhode 
Island  and  was  promptly  ejected.  Several  weeks  later 
another  appeared  and  was  also  ejected,  both  without 
violence  or  penalty.  In  the  following  year,  two  others 
appeared  and  seem  to  have  received  some  kind  of  trial 
before  the  General  Court.  One  of  them  constantly  in- 
terrupted Governor  Prence, — the  majesty  of  whose  ap- 
pearance we  may  well  remember  in  this  connection  for 
the  Quaker  seems  not  to  have  been  terrified  by  it, — 
with  a  constant  flow  of  such  remarks  as  "thou  liest," 
"Thomas,  thou  art  a  malicious  man,"  "thy  clamorous 
tongue  I  regard  no  more  than  the  dust  beneath  my  feet." 
The  pair  declined  to  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  England, 
but  seem  to  have  alleged  no  scruple  about  the  oath  itself, 
and,  having  defied  the  Court  to  do  its  worst,  were  ac- 

1  Mayflower  Descendant,  IV,  216.   He  was  also  declared  "amiable* 
and  pleasant  in  his  whole  conversation." 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  259 

cordingly  whipped  and  sent  on  their  way,  writing  from 
Rhode  Island  a  letter  prophesying  for  Prence  all  sorts  of 
calamities.  Another  they  wrote  to  Alden,  upbraiding 
him  for  having  renounced  his  former  tolerance;  a  hint 
interesting  to  us.  They  also  begged  Alden  not  to  be  a 
"self  conceited  fool"  because  called  magistrate.  In  1658 
several  other  Quakers  appeared,  some  of  whom  were 
whipped.  In  1659  the  famous  Mary  Dyer  visited  Plym- 
outh, but  was  promptly  sent  to  Rhode  Island  and  the 
cost  of  her  deportation,  with  true  Yankee  shrewdness, 
was  collected.  In  all,  some  ten  were  deported  and  some 
five  were  whipped.  No  Quaker  suffered  death  at  Plym- 
outh or  extended  ill-treatment.  There  is,  however,  no 
evidence  that  the  more  characteristic  of  Quaker  demon- 
strations took  place  at  Plymouth. 

It  is  perhaps  advisable  to  mention  here  that  the  witch- 
craft delusion,  which  swept  through  the  colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  somewhat  later,  never  secured  credence  at 
Plymouth.  There  seem  to  have  been  only  two  cases. 
In  1 65 1  Dinah,  the  wife  of  one  Sylvester  of  Scituate, 
claimed  to  have  seen  a  neighbor,  the  wife  of  a  man 
named  Holmes,  in  conversation  with  the  devil,  who  had 
for  this  colloquy  assumed  the  form  of  a  bear.  Holmes 
brought  suit  for  slander.  The  lady  was  convicted  and 
ordered  to  confess  and  to  pay  £5  damages.  The  fact 
that  she  chose  to  do  so  seems  to  have  considerably  dis- 
couraged witch  hunting.  The  second  case  was  in  1677 
and  resembles  somewhat  the  famous  cases  at  Salem.  An 
elderly  lady  was  charged  with  bewitching  a  young  girl 
and  with  causing  her  to  fall  on  the  ground  in  violent  fits. 
She  was  tried  by  a  jury,  Governor  Josiah  Winslow  pre- 
siding as  Judge,  and  to  their  everlasting  honor  the  ver- 
dict was  brought  in  of  "not  guilty." 


260  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

The  tendency  of  the  political  development  at  Plymouth 
was  revealed  immediately  after  the  death  of  Bradford 
by  a  prompt  attempt  to  reduce  the  autocratic  power  of 
the  Governor  and  to  provide  some  sort  of  formula,  by 
which  freemen  might  be  more  easily  and  frequently  ad- 
mitted to  the  privilege.1  The  change  indeed  was  less 
one  in  the  structure  of  government  than  of  emphasis. 
It  was  not  less  essential  than  before  to  be  a  Church 
member,  but  it  was  easier  to  become  one.  The  ecclesi- 
astical line  was  less  rigid  and  had  great  effect  in  extending 
political  privilege.  No  doubt  too  the  fact  that  the  new 
leaders  (until  1663)  did  not  reside  at  Plymouth  em- 
phasized the  growth  of  other  towns  in  jurisdiction,  led 
to  an  increase  in  the  power  of  the  town  authorities  and  to 
a  more  considerable  freedom  of  the  towns  from  the 
colonial  dictation,  as  well  as  a  considerable  weakening 
of  the  political  leadership  of  Plymouth  itself.  The  dis- 
cretionary power  of  the  Governor  and  Assistants  seems 
to  have  been  less  freely  used  than  by  Bradford  and 
their  administration  followed  more  closely  certain  stere- 
otyped and  routine  lines.  The  autocratic  power,  which 
had  been  retained  by  the  General  Court  to  combat  the 
Assembly,  in  order  to  preserve  and  enhance  the  influence 
of  Plymouth,  indeed  in  order  to  preserve  a  degree  of 
influence  in  the  colony  to  which  the  physical  size  of 
Plymouth  no  longer  entitled  it,  now  had  precisely  the 
opposite  effect  from  that  originally  intended.  The  over- 
whelming majority  of  the  freemen  had  migrated  to  the 

1  These  conclusions  are  unavoidably  deductions  and  inferences 
from  the  formal  records,  for  there  seems  to  be  no  direct  evidence 
as  to  the  policy  or  intentions  of  the  leaders.  The  majority  of  ex- 
plicit facts  and  laws  referred  to  can  be  readily  found  under  the 
date  in  the  Records. 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  261 

other  towns  and  the  very  power  of  the  General  Court 
militated  now  against  Plymouth.  In  general,  however, 
the  tendency  was,  so  far  as  we  can  make  out  from  the 
fragmentary  records,  for  the  General  Court  to  become 
more  and  more  a  Court  of  Elections,  for  the  Assembly 
of  Deputies  to  arrogate  supremacy  in  legislation,  and 
for  the  Governor  and  Assistants  to  secure  in  practice 
control  of  the  judicial  machinery.  The  increase  in  the 
colony's  population  to  over  7000  in  1690  made  the  rep- 
resentative system,  for  which  the  Assembly  of  Deputies 
stood,  more  important,  more  logical,  and  more  useful. 
Taxation,  hitherto  hardly  systematic  at  Plymouth,  was 
reorganized  after  1657.  In  1646,  excise  taxes  had  been 
levied  on  wines,  beer,  and  strong  waters,  and  were  soon 
extended  to  tobacco  and  oil.  After  1662,  the  principal 
revenue  came  from  export  taxes  on  exports  of  boards, 
plank,  staves,  and  headings,  tar,  oysters,  and  iron. 
Some  revenue  came  from  the  lease  of  the  trading  rights 
on  the  Kennebec  1  and  from  a  lease  of  the  mackerel 
fishery  off  Cape  Cod,  which  the  colony  attempted  to 
monopolize  as  early  as  1646.  A  barrel  of  oil  from  each 
drift  whale  was  also  demanded.  Exactly  how  the  revenue 
was  collected  and  for  what  it  was  spent  we  cannot  be 
sure,  for  salaries  as  such  seem  not  to  have  been  paid 
before  1690,  though  presents  and  expense  accounts  were 
authorized,  and  grants  of  land  were  made  to  officials. 
The  people  remained  divided  as  before  into  Freemen, 

xAn  attempt  was  made  during  the  Commonwealth  to  secure 
the  grant  of  the  whole  of  the  Kennebec,  which  was  finally  agreed 
to  for  seven  years.  There  was  of  course  in  1660  no  disposition  on 
their  part  to  call  attention  to  it.  Interregnum  Entry  Book,  XCIV, 
pp.  425-526;  CLXI,  pp.  io-ii.  The  entries  relating  to  the  Pil- 
grims in  the  English  manuscript  archives  for  the  period  subsequent 
to  1620  are  few  and  unimportant. 


V 


262  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Inhabitants,  Sojourners,  and  the  non-privileged,  but  it 
became  decidedly  easier  to  become  a  Sojourner  and 
reside  in  the  jurisdiction,  to  secure  a  grant  of  land,  and 
therefore  to  become  an  Inhabitant.  Some  attempt  now 
was  made  to  provide  a  less  rigid  statement  of  the  require- 
ments for  political  privilege.  In  1656  it  was  voted  that 
the  freemen  of  the  towns  should  be  permitted  to  "  pro- 
pound" new  candidates  to  the  General  Court  for  ad- 
mittance. Two  years  later  it  was  amended  to  read  that 
the  man  should  be  accepted  by  the  Court  "upon  satisfy- 
ing testimony  from  freemen  of  his  town."  He  should 
then ■" stand  propounded"  for  a  year,  and  then  be  con- 
sidered a  freeman  "if  the  Court  shall  not  see  cause  to 
the  contrary."  Knowing  as  we  do  the  powerful  forces 
at  work  to  break  down  the  rigid  lines  of  the  older  priv- 
ilege, we  shall  perhaps  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  see  in  these 
provisions  an  attempt  to  admit  men  to  political  privi- 
lege who  were  vouched  for  by  men  from  their  own  town, 
and  against  whom  within  a  year  nothing  serious  should 
be  alleged.  It  seems  almost  as  if  a  vote  by  the  General 
Court  as  to  whether  they  should  be  accepted  was  pre- 
cluded. In  1658  an  oath  of  fidelity  was  required  of  all 
citizens  and  certain  classes  of  men  were  defined  who 
should  not  be  admitted  freemen,  among  whom  were 
enumerated  Quakers,  "opposers  of  the  good  and  whole- 
some laws  of  this  colony,"  or  " manifest  opposers  of  the 
true  worship  of  God,  or  such  as  refused  to  do  the  country 
service  being  called  thereunto."  All  existing  freemen 
who  were  Quakers  or  encouragers  of  Quakers  were  to 
lose  their  privilege,  and  all  likewise  who  were  adjudged 
"gravely  scandalous,"  as  "liers,  drunkards,  swearers, 
etc."  It  may  be  that  the  new  regime  was  less  strict  than 
the  old,  but  it  seems  nevertheless  to  have  possessed  a 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  263 

certain  stringency  of  its  own.  At  the  same  time  it  is 
very  clear  that  the  importance  of  these  provisions  lay 
in  the  spirit  in  which  they  were  interpreted. 

In  1664  Plymouth  received  a  visit  from  the  Royal 
Commissioners,  who  came  thither  from  Boston  after 
what  must  have  been  for  them  a  sorely  trying  experience. 
The  suavity  and  cordiality  of  their  welcome  at  Plymouth 
made  therefore  a  great  impression  upon  them.  Prence 
indeed  thoroughly  appreciated  the  fact  that,  as  against 
the  King,  the  little  colony  possessed  no  rights  of  govern- 
ment. There  had  been  considerable  doubt  whether  the 
Council  for  New  England  had  been  able  to  convey  any 
rights  of  government  by  the  patent  of  1630,  and  now  that 
the  Council  had  surrendered  its  powers  to  the  King,  those 
doubts  were  very  certainly  ended  so  far  as  the  royal 
authority  was  concerned.  The  Commissioners  invited 
complaints  against  the  jurisdiction  and  received  but  one, 
from  a  man  who  had  attempted  to  purchase  land  from  the 
Indians  on  his  own  authority. 

They  seem  to  have  been  entirely  satisfied  with  what 
they  saw  and  heard,  and  made  indeed  only  four  recom- 
mendations :  that  all  householders  should  swear  allegiance 
and  the  courts  act  in  the  King's  name;  that  all  men  of 
competent  estate  and  civil  conversation  be  admitted  as 
freemen  to  vote  and  to  hold  office;  that  all  of  orthodox 
opinions  and  civil  lives  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's  Supper 
and  their  children  to  Baptism,  either  in  the  existing  con- 
gregations or  in  such  as  they  might  form ;  that  any  laws 
or  legal  phrases  disrespectful  to  the  King  should  be 
changed.  The  General  Court  replied  that  the  first  two 
points  represented  the  colony's  constant  practice,  while 
for  the  last,  there  were  none.  To  the  third  they  replied 
at  great  length,  alleging  in  substance  that  all  of  orthodox 


264  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

opinion  were  already  welcome  in  their  churches,  that  they 
forbade  none  the  right  to  pursue  such  worship  as  they 
preferred,  and  merely  required  that,  pending  the  institu- 
tion of  some  regular  worship  of  their  own,  they  should 
support  and  attend  the  Churches  in  existence.  The 
Commissioners  were  well  satisfied  with  the  reply,  and 
the  letter,  which  the  King  later  sent  to  Plymouth, 
seemed  to  the  Pilgrims  to  augur  well  for  their  future 
cordial  relations  with  the  Crown.  In  1671  they  adopted 
the  suggestion  of  the  Commissioners  and  provided  that 
all  should  be  freemen,  who  were  twenty-one  years  old, 
possessed  of  £20  of  ratable  property,  and  were  as  well 
"of  sober  and  peaceable  conversation,"  and  "orthodox 
in  religion. "  There  was  still  ample  warrant  in  these 
phrases  to  withhold  privilege  from  anyone  whom  they 
disliked,  but  the  tendency  seems  to  have  been  to  in- 
crease the  number  of  freemen  rather  than  to  restrict  it. 

The  trend  of  economic  development  at  Plymouth 
emphasized  those  interests  complementary  to  Massachu- 
setts Bay.  An  economic  structure  closely  related  to  the 
larger  colony  had  been  developing  for  some  time,  and 
gradually  independent  trade  with  England  and  the  other 
American  colonies  ceased  and  Plymouth  bought  from  the 
Bay  and  sold  to  it.  This  was  naturally  enough  the  result 
of  the  founding  of  towns  in  the  western  part  of  the  Plym- 
outh patent  by  settlers  from  the  Bay  colony  itself,  in 
locations  better  suited  to  agriculture  than  Plymouth 
proper.  This  district  became  gradually  the  predominant 
economic  section  of  the  little  state,  and  naturally,  being 
upon  the  high  road  from  Boston  to  Rhode  Island  and 
in  closer  proximity  indeed  to  Boston  than  to  Plymouth, 
grew  more  and  more  nearly  a  part  of  the  economic  struc- 
ture of  which  Boston  was  the  centre,  and  tended  more 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  265 

and  more  to  sever  its  connections  with  Plymouth  itself. 
Indeed,  the  Plymouth  area  did  not  form  an  independent 
economic  unit  nor  did  it  occupy  a  natural  geographical 
subdivision  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  On  the  contrary,  it 
was  itself  economically  a  part  of  a  larger  unit  whose  nat- 
ural centre  was  Boston.  More  and  more  the  economic 
and  social  influence  of  the  Bay  Colony  transformed  the 
greater  number  of  Plymouth  towns.  The  old  system  of 
rigid  seclusion  gradually  broke  down.  The  old  scrutiny 
of  newcomers  was  less  and  less  maintained.  While  this 
assisted  in  a  way  the  breakdown  of  the  older  ecclesiastical 
lines,  it  was  itself  in  turn  assisted  by  the  general  failure 
of  the  Plymouth  Church  to  maintain  its  old-time  ascend- 
ency. While  it  was  perhaps  never  easy  for  a  stranger  to 
secure  a  grant  of  land  and  economic  privilege  in  the  Old 
Colony  or  in  Massachusetts,  the  two  ceased,  certainly 
after  1660,  to  regard  each  other  with  the  old  suspicion. 
A  man  of  good  standing  in  the  one  could  without  great 
difficulty  transport  himself  to  some  part  of  the  other's 
jurisdiction  and  there  secure  privilege. 

The  economic  and  ecclesiastical  results  of  King  Philip's 
War  give  it  now  practically  its  only  title  to  a  place  in 
Plymouth  annals.  Time  was  when  Philip  occupied  a 
romantic  and  prominent  place  in  Pilgrim  history,  but  the 
more  recent  students  have  united  to  strip  this  war  of 
its  glamor  and  of  its  importance.1    They  point  out  to  us 

1  Palfrey  and  Goodwin  are  particularly  emphatic.  It  should 
perhaps  be  said  that  the  more  romantic  idea  of  Philip  involves  the 
very  decided  guilt  of  the  Pilgrims  for  ill-treatment,  undue  en- 
croachments, selfishness,  and  cruelty.  Everything  else  we  know 
about  Plymouth  leads  us  to  reject  such  an  idea  as  inconsistent 
with  Pilgrim  character  and  ideals  as  well  as  with  their  professions, 
and  with  the  evidence  in  their  Records  of  their  previous  treat- 
ment of  Indians. 


266  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

that  Philip  was  no  king  and  was  not  even  an  intelligent 
Indian;  that  he  lived  in  squalor  and  possessed  no  par- 
ticular property  of  which  the  white  man  could  deprive 
him.  As  a  figure  typifying  the  downfall  of  a  proud  race, 
protesting  against  the  loss  of  its  independence  before 
the  ever  encroaching  white  man,  Philip  was  a  name  with 
which  to  conjure.  As  a  dirty,  quarrelsome,  treacherous, 
degenerate  Indian,  bent  upon  making  trouble  for  the 
Pilgrims,  who  had  done  their  best  to  protect  his  land  and 
property,  he  ceases  to  occupy  in  history  a  position  of  im- 
portance. The  later  students  have  put  the  blame  for 
the  war  squarely  upon  the  Indians,  have  denied  continued 
and  unfair  encroachments  by  the  whites,  and  have  re- 
duced the  war  to  a  series  of  Indian  raids,  destructive 
of  life  and  property,  chiefly  because  of  the  carelessness 
of  the  whites  and  of  the  failure  of  Massachusetts  and 
Plymouth  to  cooperate  promptly. 

So  far  as  Plymouth  was  concerned,  the  influence  of  the 
war  was  indirect  and  lay  in  its  economic  and  ecclesiastical 
results  rather  than  in  its  inception  or  its  happenings.  The 
latter  are  not  particularly  interesting  nor  instructive  and 
a  detailed  narrative  seems  out  of  proportion  here  in  so 
brief  an  account  of  the  Pilgrim  story.  The  economic 
loss,  which  the  war  entailed,  nevertheless  was  for  so 
weak  a  colony  a  serious  matter.  No  exact  estimate  is 
available,  but  certainly  several  towns  were  burned  and 
several  hundred  houses,  while  several  hundred  people 
were  killed  and  a  good  many  thousand  pounds'  worth  of 
property  was  destroyed,  including  some  thousands  of 
cattle.  The  public  debt  which  the  colony  incurred  in 
putting  down  the  rising  amounted  to  twenty-seven 
thousand  pounds,  a  staggering  sum  considering  their 
resources,  but  one  which  was  eventually  paid  to  the 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  267 

penny.  The  existence  of  this  debt  and  the  comparative 
lack  of  means  for  paying  it,  was  apparently  one  of  the 
reasons  which  led  Hinckley  to  favor  secretly  the  inclusion 
of  Plymouth  within  the  Massachusetts  patent. 

The  outbreak  of  the  war  caused  a  "  searching  of  con- 
sciences" at  Plymouth  and  a  renewal  of  the  Covenant  of 
the  Church  with  God.  They  felt  that  in  one  way  or 
another  it  indicated  the  wrath  of  God  upon  them  for 
their  shortcomings,  and  that  the  weakness  of  the  Church 
at  Plymouth  was  due  to  their  own  lack  of  spiritual 
strength.  A  great  day  of  fasting  and  humiliation  was 
held  and,  as  the  Church  records  add,  "  within  a  month 
after  our  solemne  day,"  Philip  was  slain.  Thus  prompt > 
was  the  indication  of  divine  approval  of  their  repentance. 
The  leadership  of  the  Church  at  Plymouth  had  been  dis- 
turbed by  the  foundation  of  various  towns  after  1630 
and  by  the  removal  of  Elder  Brewster  from  Plymouth  as 
early  as  1633.  The  difficulty  was  increased  by  the  fact 
that  the  newer  towns  in  the  majority  of  cases  possessed 
a  minister  abler  than  the  incumbent  at  Plymouth  itself, 
and  was  doubly  accentuated  by  the  death  of  Bradford 
and  by  the  lack  of  any  minister  at  all  at  Plymouth  from 
1654  to  1667.  During  those  years  all  pretence  of  leader- 
ship was  lost  by  the  Plymouth  Church.  The  calling  of 
John  Cotton,  Jr.,  son  of  the  famous  Boston  minister, 
trained  at  Harvard  College,  and  a  man  of  real  ability 
and  energy  was  an  important  event  in  the  history  of 
the  colony.  This  was  in  1667,  but  it  was  not  until  1676 
and  1677  that  the  real  reorganization  of  the  Church  was 
begun  and  an  active  spirit  of  cooperation  engendered 
among  the  people  themselves. 

The  mere  presence  of  Cotton  at  Plymouth  was  defin- 
itive proof  that  the  old  line  between  the  Plymouth 


268  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

and  Massachusetts  Churches  had  disappeared.  Truth 
to  tell,  the  Bay  Churches  had  accepted  the  Pilgrims' 
standpoint.  They  no  longer  maintained  the  Tightness 
of  the  Church  of  England  nor  the  desirability  of  connec- 
tion with  it.  They  no  longer  claimed  as  they  had  in 
the  first  decade  the  right  to  attend  its  communion  on 
their  visits  to  England.  The  Pilgrims  themselves  were 
not  more  assured  of  its  inadequacy  than  the  Massachu- 
setts ministers  in  1667.  An  entire  generation  had  passed 
away  since  they  had  first  come  to  the  New  World,  during 
which  they  had  been  separated  from  the  Mother  Church 
not  only  in  distance  but  in  time.  A  new  generation  had 
risen  in  New  England,  born  on  the  soil,  which  knew 
neither  Joseph  nor  Pharoah,  and  had  long  been  accus- 
tomed to  formulate  its  own  policy  in  ecclesiastical  af- 
fairs. For  nearly  two  decades,  moreover,  Episcopacy 
had  been  abolished  in  England,  and  the  renunciation  of 
Bishops  and  canons  in  the  mother  land  had  made  illogical 
any  attachment  to  them  by  the  Puritans  of  New  Eng- 
land. The  change  was  probably  in  no  sense  a  conscious 
adoption  by  the  Bay  Colony  of  the  Pilgrim  Separatist 
belief,  but  the  work  of  circumstances  over  which  neither 
of  the  colonies  in  New  England  had  any  control. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  negative  character 
of  Pilgrim  theology,  its  insistence  on  the  observances  of 
the  transitional  period,  made  difficult  its  maintenance 
against  the  more  positive  theology  of  later  years.  The 
presence  in  the  Bay  Colony,  too,  of  so  many  abler  min- 
isters and  of  so  many  laymen,  intellectually  more  capable 
than  the  majority  at  Plymouth,  insensibly  in  the  course 
of  decades  produced  an  impression.  New  colonists  had 
begun  in  1631  to  drift  into  the  Pilgrim  jurisdiction  by 
twos  and  threes  from  the  Bay  Colony  and  remained 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  269 

naturally  more  favorable  to  its  traditions  than  to  the 
original  Pilgrim  ideals.  Gradually,  as  the  leaders  at 
Plymouth  and  the  older  generation  had  died,  the  newer 
generation  had  grown  up  in  other  towns  than  Plymouth, 
in  close  connection  with  immigrants  from  Massachusetts, 
and  in  most  cases  outnumbered  by  them.  It  cannot  be 
said  that  the  Pilgrim  Church  was  absorbed  into  the 
Massachusetts  system,  nor  yet  perhaps  that  the  Massa- 
chusetts system  transformed  itself  in  accordance  with 
the  Pilgrim  example.  The  two  Churches  seem  to  have 
grown  toward  each  other  and  away  from  what  they  had 
both  originally  been,  and  merged  into  a  product  different 
from  either  and  better  than  both.1 

As  in  the  State  so  in  the  Church,  the  reorganization 
under  Cotton  was  actuated  by  a  desire  to  strengthen  the 
Church  by  a  broader  and  more  tolerant  policy,  by  a 
lessening  of  the  rigidity  of  the  older  ecclesiastical  re- 
quirements. Something  of  the  precise  changes  we 
know.2  Cotton  and  the  deacons  had  undertaken  in  1667 
a  house  to  house  visitation  of  the  whole  town  and  had 
inquired  "into  the  state  of  souls."  A  change  was  made 
at  once  in  the  method  of  admission  to  the  Church.  It 
had  hitherto  been  essential,  not  only  for  the  individual 
to  satisfy  the  authorities  of  his  orthodoxy,  but  for  him 
also  to  state  orally  before  the  Church  as  a  whole  the 
grounds  of  his  faith  and  to  answer  such  questions  as 
were  put  to  him,  a  terrifying  ordeal  which  had  no  doubt 

1  The  issue  was  somewhat  debated  at  the  time.  John  Cotton 
Senior  and  Bradford  both  disclaim  any  conscious  attempt  to  model 
the  Bay  Churches  on  the  Pilgrim  idea.  See  a  discussion  of  this 
point  in  C.  Burrage,  Early  English  Dissenters,  I,  357-368. 

2  The  Records  of  Plymouth  First  Church  tell  us  much  of  in- 
terest. They  have  been  printed  in  full  in  the  Mayflower  Descend- 
ant, IV,  V,  VIII,  etc. 


270  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

kept  many  from  Church  membership.  This  was  now  no 
longer  required.  The  authorities  were  to  satisfy  them- 
selves by  private  conversation  with  the  candidate  of  his 
orthodoxy  and  fitness.  Undoubtedly  this  was  responsi- 
ble for  the  admission  of  so  many  new  members  at  this 
time  and  for  the  continued  accessions  in  the  years  after 
1676.  There  had  been  forty-seven  members  in  1669; 
twenty-seven  more  had  been  admitted  in  that  year; 
fourteen  in  1670;  seventeen  in  1671;  and  six  in  1672. 
This  will  give  some  idea  of  the  previous  stringency.  The 
members  also  solemnly  renewed  their  covenant  in  1676 
and  entered  into  a  further  definite  agreement  to  revive 
the  active  life  of  the  old  Church. 

The  service  too  had  been  calculated  to  make  partici- 
pation difficult  rather  than  easy  for  those  unable  to  read 
or  not  possessed  of  a  ready  memory.  Books  no  doubt 
were  scarce,  but  the  psalms  had  been  sung  straight 
through,  without  any  such  assistance,  as  was  already 
common  in  Massachusetts,  as  giving  out  the  line  before 
it  was  sung.  This  practice  was  introduced  at  Plymouth 
in  1 68 1,  and  was  then  changed  to  the  reading  of  the 
psalm  by  the  Pastor  with  an  exposition  of  it,  before  the 
Deacon  proceeded  to  give  it  out,  line  by  line,  for  singing. 
Ainsworth's  Psalms,  hitherto  used  at  Plymouth,  was 
after  a  time  abandoned  for  the  Bay  Psalm  Book.  Thus 
was  new  life  introduced  into  the  Plymouth  Church. 
\S  At  this  time,  too,  education  at  Plymouth  received  se- 
rious attention.  From  the  first  they  had  been  solicitous 
about  it,  and,  even  in  the  earliest  years,  the  children 
had  received  some  instruction.  As  early  as  1624,  Brad- 
ford hints  at  something  like  a  school,  and  after  1630 
there  were  certainly  several  schools  in  the  colony.  It  was 
not  until  1662,  however,  that  a  law  was  passed  by  the 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  271 

General  Court  charging  each  town  to  employ  a  school- 
master, and  not  until  1677  that  schools  were  made 
compulsory.  Laws  were  passed  holding  masters  and 
parents  responsible  in  case  the  children  were  not  trained 
in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic.  Some  inducement 
was  offered  after  1670  for  the  establishment  of  a  classical 
school,  and  probably  in  1674  the  first  free  school  estab- 
lished in  New  England  by  law  was  opened  at  Plymouth. 
There  had  long  been  free' schools  in  Massachusetts  Bay, 
but  they  had  not  the  sanction  of  law  or  were  not  sup- 
ported by  taxes.  For  anything  beyond  the  elements, 
however,  it  was  essential  to  resort  to  the  schools  of  the 
Bay  Colony  and  to  Harvard  College. 

Secular  education,  indeed,  the  Pilgrims  did  not  en- 
tirely approve  of.  University  learning  seemed  to  them 
unnecessary  beyond  the  rudiments,  for  the  true  enlight- 
enment of  the  mind  was  to  be  derived  from  the  study 
of  the  Bible  and  not  from  the  classics  as  taught  by  col- 
leges. There  was  to  this  opposition  a  certain  ecclesiastical 
tinge.  The  Established  Church  made  much  of  college 
degrees  and  exacted  from  clergymen  for  ordination  re- 
quirements which  could  be  fulfilled  only  in  colleges. 
For  the  ordination  of  that  Church,  the  Pilgrims  had  the 
most  supreme  contempt  and  any  requirements  which  it 
made  they  placed  in  the  same  category.1  They  were 
unwilling  to  accept  the  contention  that  a  man  might 
not  be  entirely  learned  without  having  "saluted  a  Uni- 
versity" or  peered  between  the  covers  of  a  Greek  Gram- 
mar. To  admit  that  college  education  was  essential* 
would  have  been  to  condemn  their  own  opinions  and 

1  An  amusing  commentary  on  this  attitude  by  Morton  in  his 
New  English  Canaan,  Prince  Soc.  ed.,  282,  is  our  chief  direct  evi- 
dence of  its  existence. 


272  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

accept  those  of  the  college  professors  and  college-trained 
Clergy  whom  they  had  left  behind  in  England,  and 
whose  learning  they  had  rejected  as  unavailing  for 
salvation.  The  true  Light  had  come  to  them  without 
education.  The  educated  of  their  own  day  seemed  not 
to  see  the  Light.  They  were  therefore  not  anxious  to 
teach  their  children  anything  beyond  the  rudiments  of 
that  education,  which  seemed  so  powerless  to  confer  upon 
its  possessor  spiritual  guidance  and  insight. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  after  1660  a  great  change  came 
over  social  conditions  at  Plymouth;  not  that  the  main 
outlines  of  the  social  structure  were  seriously  changed 
nor  its  main  purpose  altered,  but  the  spirit  and  tendency 
of  life  were  freer.1  The  individual  was  less  subject  to 
scrutiny  and  greater  latitude  was  allowed  him.  With 
this  later  Plymouth  we  are  less  interested,  though  we 
know  about  it  comparatively  more  than  about  the  earlier 
Plymouth  of  the  forefathers.  It  is  interesting  chiefly  as 
the  first  stage  in  the  breaking  down  of  a  system  which 
time  was  to  prove  incompatible  with  its  own  chief 
tenets.  The  Pilgrims  preached  the  responsibility  of  the 
individual  to  God  for  his  own  salvation,  and  his  par- 
amount responsibility  for  informing  himself  of  religious 

1  The  members  of  the  First  Church  agreed  in  1676  that  they 
had  been  "listlesse  and  sluggish"  in  attendance  at  Church;  had 
not  kept  the  Sabbath  strictly;  had  "set  our  hearts  upon  the  world 
and  creature  comforts  and  vanities  and  have  too  much  conformed 
to  the  world."  "Wee  have  bin  a  proud  generation — haughty  in 
spirit,  in  countenance,  in  garbe  and  fashion,  and  have  too  much 
delighted  to  follow  the  vaine  and  sinfull  customs  of  an  evil  world." 
The  Elders  told  the  Church  that  "some  of  the  brethren  walked 
disorderly,  in  sitting  too  long  together  in  publick  houses  and  with 
vaine  company  and  drinking."  Mayflower  Descendant,  V,  216; 
VIII,  215,  217.  We  must  certainly  not  interpret  such  utterances 
too  literally. 


Tendency  after  the  Death  of  Bradford  273 

truth.  They  taught  without  deviation  or  compromise 
that  none  but  he  could  save  his  soul,  that  priests, 
churches,  ministers,  and  friends  were  unavailing  to  do  more 
than  offer  him  some  little  assistance  and  enlightenment. 

In  Europe,  they  had  preached  freedom  to  act,  freedom 
to  think,  freedom  to  read,  with  the  full  comprehension 
that  it  meant  freedom  to  disobey  statutes,  to  renounce  the 
Pope,  to  absent  themselves  from  the  service  of  the 
Established  Church,  and,  so  long  as  they  had  remained 
in  Europe,  this  new  freedom  of  the  individual  which  they 
preached  had  remained  merely  freedom  to  disregard 
certain  former  requirements  of  the  old  order,  so  con- 
spicuously thrust  into  the  foreground  by  Church  and 
State  as  to  conceal  the  fact  that  real  freedom  to  think 
and  act  was  equally  withheld  from  the  Pilgrims  by  their 
own  system.  At  Plymouth,  far  removed  from  Europe 
and  its  Churches  and  kings,  the  Pope  become  already 
a  dim  myth,  and  Bishops  and  canons  unrealities,  the 
system  involved  a  control  of  the  individual  by  society 
and  the  church  which  was  entirely  incompatible  with  its 
own  primal  tenet,  his  freedom  to  think  and  act  in  accord- 
ance with  his  own  information  and  not  in  accordance 
with  that  of  others.  Theoretically,  the  Church  members 
accorded  to  each  other  the  right  to  investigate  and  con- 
clude, but  they  never  even  in  theory  extended  that  right 
to  their  wives,  their  children,  their  servants,  and  their 
apprentices.  A  minority  of  the  community  attempted 
to  coerce  the  majority  on  the  basis  of  an  intellectual  pre- 
tension to  dictate  their  conduct  as  well  as  their  beliefs, 
to  dictate  their  civil,  economic,  and  social  status  as  well 
as  the  road  to  salvation.  It  was  a  system  inconsistent 
with  itself,  which  denied  its  own  tenet,  which  crushed 
the  individual  instead  of  freeing  him,  which  subjected  him 


274  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

to  a  yoke  far  heavier  than  any  Bishops  or  Pope  had  laid 
upon  him,  and  manyfold  more  stringently  enforced. 
I"*""  Time  could  not  fail  to  reveal  the  inconsistency.  Men 
began  to  see  that  they  had  freedom  only  to  agree  with 
the  strictest  Calvinists  and  to  act  in  social  affairs  in 
accord  with  Bradford's  and  Brewster's  consciences. 
They  might,  it  was  true,  leave  the  colony;  but  they  came 
in  the  end  to  realize  that  the  fundamental  tenets  of 
the  system  itself  endowed  them  with  the  right  to  follow 
their  own  consciences,  and  with  the  same  right  to  resist 
dictation  from  the  leaders  as  from  the  Pope.  Dimly, 
unconsciously,  something  of  this  seems  to  have  been 
appreciated  toward  the  close  of  Pilgrim  history.  This 
was  unquestionably  the  leaven  at  work  at  Plymouth,  as 
at  Boston,  in  England,  and  elsewhere.  The  process  of 
evolution  was  to  be  long.  Real  toleration  was  still  many 
decades  distant,  and  the  freedom  of  social  life  from 
ecclesiastical  direction  was  not  to  come  within  the  span 
of  Plymouth's  political  independence. 

The  Plymouth  of  169 1  would  scarcely  have  pleased  the 
original  settlers.  Long  before  Bradford  died,  he  began  to 
suspect  something  of  the  real  trend  of  events.  To  him 
the  gradual  disappearance  of  the  sharp  ecclesiastical 
antagonism  between  Plymouth  and  the  other  colonies, 
the  growth  in  population,  the  founding  of  new  towns,  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  churches  were  proof  that  the 
end  for  which  he  had  striven  throughout  his  life  would 
not  be  achieved.  Had  he  but  known  it,  the  diffusion  of 
population,  the  apparent  breaking  down  of  the  barriers 
surrounding  Plymouth,  were  but  the  signs  that  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Pilgrims  was  extending,  was  leavening  a 
larger  lump  than  Plymouth,  and  was  about  to  become 
the  heritage,  not  of  a  Church  but  of  a  nation. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   LOSS  OF  POLITICAL  INDEPENDENCE 

It  was  not  until  January,  1687,  some  little  time  after 
the  establishment  of  a  General  Governor  for  the  New 
England  colonies  at  New  York  and  Boston,  that  Sir 
Edmund  Andros  found  time  to  take  the  necessary  legal 
steps  for  the  abolition  of  the  old  government  at  Plymouth 
and  the  institution  of  his  own.1  The  last  session  of  the 
old  General  Court  occurred  October  5,  1686,  and  the 
new  Government  lasted  until  April  22,  1689,  though  the 
next  entry  in  the  Plymouth  records  is  October  8,  1689. 
There  is  not  much  to  tell  about  the  Andros  regime  at 
Plymouth.  It  seems  to  have  been  rather  an  interim  than 
a  radical  change  of  any  sort.  The  ecclesiastical,  social, 
and  economic  life  of  the  colony  seems  to  have  gone  on  as 
before;  local  government  in  the  hands  of  the  towns  con- 
tinued, even  though  an  intention  to  change  it  had  been 
expressed;  only  the  central  authority  was  suspended,  and, 
inasmuch  as  no  very  considerable  activity  of  any  of  its 
parts  was  common,  it  betokened  no  great  change  of 
significance  that  for  three  years  neither  the  Governor 
and  Assistants,  the  General  Court,  nor  the  Assembly 
held  their  accustomed  sessions. 

1  Sewall  duly  noticed  that  on  December  30,  1686,  "the  gentle- 
men from  Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island"  came  to  Boston  to  take 
oaths  to  the  new  government.  Diary,  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  5th 
Series,  V,  163.  This  famous  source  is  disappointing,  for  it  con- 
tains only  a  very  few  perfunctory  notices  about  Plymouth.  Nor 
does  the  considerable  volume  of  contemporary  material  on  the 
Andros  regime  much  better  reward  perusal. 

275 


276  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

Indeed,  nothing  of  importance  seems  to  have  been 
attempted  by  Andros  at  Plymouth.  The  same  polity  he 
tried  to  apply  in  the  other  colonies  was  outlined;  the 
land  titles  in  particular  were  declared  invalid,  and 
announcement  was  made  that  new  and  thoroughly  legal 
titles  and  documents  were  to  be  had  upon  payment  of 
fee.  Clark's  Island,  which  had  long  been  rented  out  by 
the  colony  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  was  granted  by 
the  new  Government  to  Nathaniel  Clark,  a  Plymouth 
man,  and  one  of  Plymouth's  seven  members  in  the  new 
Governor's  Council.  He  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
Plymouth  citizen  to  whom  Andros  listened,  and  the  only 
one  who  in  any  whole  hearted  way  gave  his  allegiance 
to  the  new  regime.  He  could  however  accomplish  little 
in  so  short  a  time,  whatever  his  intentions,  and  there  is 
some  doubt  whether  he  ever  secured  possession  of  the 
island.  Andros  and  his  henchmen  were  too  busy  with 
the  other  colonies  to  give  much  time  to  the  affairs  of  the 
smallest  and  least  troublesome  part  of  his  jurisdiction, 
particularly  as  no  open  or  avowed  opposition  was  at- 
tempted, and  where  even  expressions  of  disapproval  seem 
to  have  been  relatively  guarded.  There  was,  too,  the  ob- 
vious question  whether  the  owners  of  Plymouth  estates 
were  able  to  pay  the  new  fees.  Hinckley,  ex-Governor, 
declared  them  incapable.  This  no  doubt  gave  Andros 
pause. 

Hinckley,  the  old  Governor,  Nathaniel  Clark,  the  old 
Secretary,  who  had  been  educated  and  trained  by  Mor- 
ton, himself  for  so  many  years  Secretary  of  the  colony, 
became  members  of  Andros's  council,  Clark,  in  all  prob- 
ability to  further  his  own  nefarious  endeavors,  Hinckley 
to  perform  the  public  service  of  thwarting  Andros's 
schemes  regarding  Plymouth  in  the  Council  itself  before 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  277 

they  should  mature.1  At  any  rate  he  could  surely  dis- 
cover what  was  intended,  and,  being  forewarned,  might 
in  some  way  or  other  frustrate  the  execution  of  the 
measure,  if  not  its  inception.  He  could  certainly  give 
the  men  at  Plymouth  plenty  of  time  in  which  to  make 
their  preparations  for  resistance,  in  case  such  should  seem 
expedient.  Some  protest  to  the  King  against  the  new 
measures  Hinckley  made,  but  with  so  little  opposition 
possible  in  the  Council,  with  nothing  better  than  half- 
hearted support  from  the  other  members,  he  felt  it  in- 
expedient to  organize  any  resistance  at  Plymouth.  It  is 
perhaps  due  to  his  efforts  that  nothing  of  importance 
was  executed  at  Plymouth.  When  Andros  was  impris- 
oned at  Boston  and  the  regime  fell  with  a  crash  on  the 
receipt  of  the  news  of  the  Glorious  Revolution  in  Eng- 
land, Hinckley  and  the  officers  who  had  been  in  power 
at  Plymouth  in  1686  quietly  resumed  office,  without 
comment  or  official  action.  Clark  to  be  sure  they  im- 
prisoned. The  whole  incident  produced  no  effect  now 
traceable  on  Plymouth  life  or  institutions;  no  important 
event  happened  at  Plymouth  during  these  years  worth 
chronicling;  and  what  is  still  more  surprising  no  vital 
change  in  the  rights  or  privileges  of  Plymouth,  in  the 
attitude  of  the  colony  to  the  Crown,  or  of  the  Crown  to 
the  colony  can  be  discovered. 

The  policy  of  submission  which  Hinckley  represented 
and  for  which  at  the  time  he  was  criticised  somewhat 
sharply  was  really  a  continuation  of  what  the  Pilgrims 
in  the  earliest  times  had  determined  was  their  only  ex- 
pedient attitude  toward  the  Crown,  and  indeed,  toward 

1The  Hinckley  Papers  contain  a  considerable  amount  of  in- 
formation on  Plymouth  from  about  1675  to  1692.  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  4th  Series,  V. 


/ 


278  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

any  in  England  or  America  possessed  of  unquestioned 
authority.  They  themselves  never  possessed  by  patent 
or  otherwise  any  political  authority  which  was  not 
seriously  open  to  question,  and  they  therefore  from  the 
first  deemed  it  wiser  not  to  have  that  question  raised,  or, 
if  it  were,  it  should  not  be  pushed  by  them  to  an  open 
issue  or  a  trial  of  strength.  The  loss  of  the  political 
independence  of  Plymouth  is  intelligible  only  when 
studied  in  the  light  of  its  previous  economic  and  ecclesi- 
astical development,  and  in  the  light  of  its  previous  re- 
lations to  the  English  Government  and  to  the  other 
New  England  colonies. 

When  they  landed,  they  were  without  authorization 
of  any  kind,  but  nevertheless  in  the  Compact  of  1620 
utilized  phrases,  which  have  since  seemed  to  many  to 
betoken  an  intention  of  downright  independence.1  They 
bound  themselves  "into  a  civill  body  politik "  "  to  enacte, 
constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and  equall  lawes,  ordi- 
nances, actes,  constitutions  and  offices,  from  time  to 
time  as  shall  be  thought  most  meete  and  convenient 
for  the  general  good  of  the  Colonie,  unto  which  we 
promise  all  due  submission  and  obedience."  This  Brad- 
ford declared  was  as  valid  and  useful  a  document,  so 
far  as  they  were  concerned,  as  the  patent  they  brought 
with  them  from  the  Virginia  Company,  and  no  doubt 
he  considered  it  as  valuable  as  the  one  which  their 
associates  got  from  the  Council  for  New  England.  They 
themselves  certainly  possessed  no  title  to  land  and  surely 
no  rights  of  government  until  the  Warwick  Patent  is- 
sued to  Bradford  in  1630.    In  the  meantime  West  had 

1  Professor  Cbanning  emphatically  declares  the  Compact  only 
a  temporary  arrangement  without  the  "slightest  thought  of  in- 
dependence."   History  of  the  United  States,  I,  309. 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  279 

arrived  as  Admiral  of  New  England  and  Gorges  as 
Governor  of  New  England,  both  with  commissions  from 
the  Council  for  New  England,  and  both  of  them  seem  to 
have  assumed  the  inferiority  of  the  Plymouth  jurisdic- 
tion. Gorges  in  particular  issued  definite  orders  to  them 
and  demanded  that  they  execute  warrants  for  the  arrest 
of  Weston,  which  implied  very  definitely  their  sub- 
ordinate political  authority.  While  aware  of  the  im- 
plication, they  judged  it  best  to  yield,  when  they  saw 
that  he  also  appreciated  it.  From  these  apprehensions 
however  they  were  soon  free. 

Scarcely  had  the  new  patent  to  Bradford  been  issued, 
and  the  first  murder  occurred  at  Plymouth  by  Billing- 
ton  than  a  very  active  discussion  took  place  as  to  the 
possession  by  the  colony  of  the  power  to  execute  him, 
indeed  as  to  the  possession  by  the  colony  of  any  gov- 
ernmental authority  at  all.  There  were  not  a  few  who 
seemed  to  feel  that  the  patent  conferred  nothing  but 
titles  to  land,  and  so  the  majority  of  the  Pilgrims  seem 
to  have  thought.  They  consulted  Winthrop  and  Dudley, 
newly  come  to  Boston  and  better  acquainted  with  Eng- 
lish law,  and  received  from  them  advice  to  assume  that 
they  possessed  such  powers  of  government,  and  to  exer- 
cise them  accordingly,  a  decision  based  no  doubt  upon 
expediency  rather  than  law.  They  executed  Billington 
and  proceeded  to  act  otherwise  in  matters  of  government 
as  if  full  authority  were  theirs.  To  this  presently  by  Sir 
Christopher  Gardiner,  Gorges,  and  others  objection  was 
raised  in  163 1  and  1632,  and  formal  complaint  made  to 
the  Privy  Council  in  London.  Winslow  however  suc- 
cessfully explained  matters  to  the  Privy  Council  in 
January,  1633,  and  a  formal  statement  under  seal  was 
issued  to  approve  all  of  their  previous  practices.    It  also 


280  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

spoke  in  a  very  encouraging  way  of  the  importance  of 
the  venture  and  the  desire  of  the  royal  Government  to 
further  it.  They  now  began  to  write  in  the  records  l  of  the 
"Freemen  of  this  society  of  New  Plymouth"  and  later 
write  of  "this  government"  and  of  "the  Commonweale" ; 
1636  found  them  enacting  a  law  which  might  have  been 
interpreted  to  imply  a  disregard  of  the  royal  authority. 
"No  imposition,  law,  or  ordinance  be  made  or  imposed 
upon  or  by  ourselves  or  others,  at  present  or  to  come, 
but  such  as  shall  be  made  or  imposed  by  consent,  ac- 
cording to  the  free  liberties  of  the  state  and  kingdom  of 
England,  and  no  otherwise." 

Not  long  after  news  must  have  come  of  the  surrender 
in  1635  to  the  Crown  of  the  patent  and  rights  of  the 
Council  for  New  England,  the  grantor  of  their  own 
patent,  and  which  made  the  King  at  once  paramount 
over  them.  This  seems  to  have  caused  somewhat  greater 
circumspection  at  Plymouth  for  we  find  the  records 
promptly  began  to  run  in  the  name  of  the  King.  In 
1639  an  entry  begins  "Whereas  our  soueraigne  lord  the 
King  is  pleased  to  betrust  us,  T.  P.,  W.  B.,  E.  W.,  etc. 
with  the  gouernment  of  so  many  of  his  subjectes  as  doe 
or  shal  be  permitted  to  Hue  within  this  gouernment  of 
New  Plymouth."  2  They  were  careful  moreover  that 
everything  should  hereafter  be  done,  even  coroners'  in- 
quiries and  other  minor  judicial  matters,  "on  the  behalf 
of  our  sovereign  lord  the  King,"  for  all  which  in  due  time 
they  had  reason  to  be  thankful.    In  1642,  at  the  out- 

1  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  I,  5,  22,  52,  etc. 

2  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  I,  113.  The  use  of  the  King's  name 
begins  as  early  as  the  winter  of  1636  in  a  case  of  coroner's  jury, 

to  inquire  into  the  death  of ,  "in  the  behalf e  of  our  soveraigne 

Lord  the  King."  Ibid.,  I,  39.  See  also  pp.  48,  49,  91,  105,  107, 
etc.,  etc. 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  281 

break  of  the  Civil  War,  the  success  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment was  not  as  reassuring  to  the  men  at  Plymouth  as 
it  was  to  those  at  Boston,  and  the  downfall  and  capture 
of  Charles  in  1646  was  still  more  puzzling.  In  June, 
1649,  they  voted  that  "whereas  things  are  mutch  un- 
seteled  in  our  natiue  cuntry  in  regard  of  the  affairs  of 
the  state  (so  much  for  poor  Charles  Fs  head!)  whereby 
the  Court  cannot  so  clearly  prosseed  in  election  as 
formerly,"  all  officers  and  magistrates  were  to  continue 
for  a  year  as  before  and  Bradford  and  John  Brown  were 
requested  to  act  as  Commissioners,  "who  condescended 
thereto."  l 

No  further  action  seems  to  have  been  taken  and  when 
the  Royal  authority  was  restored  in  1660,  the  colony  still 
continued  its  administration  as  before,  with  circumspect 
and  loyal  expressions  of  their  reasonable  satisfaction  at 
His  Majesty's  restoration  to  his  kingdom.  They  dis- 
creetly neglected  to  call  attention  to  their  previous  days 
of  prayer  and  thanksgiving  for  the  Parliament  and  the 
Commonwealth  of  England  after  the  news  of  Dunbar 
and  Worcester.  When  the  Royal  Commissioners  arrived 
in  1664,  they  had  reason  to  congratulate  themselves  upon 
this  circumspection.  Their  writs  had  run  in  the  name 
of  the  King  and  the  records  proved  it.  They  had  not 
excluded  men  from  political  privilege  on  the  score  of 
loyalty  to  the  Crown  in  the  past  two  decades,  nor  were 
there  any  laws  on  the  books  hostile  to  the  King.  This 
attitude  pleased  the  Crown  and  so  apparently  matters 
continued  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 

This  policy  of  deference  and  submission  to  whatever 
took  place  in  England,  this  caution  and  fear  of  raising 
the  awkward  question,  whether  or  not  they  possessed 

1  PlymotUh  Colony  Records,  II,  139. 


282  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

authority,  was  precisely  the  policy  which  led  Hinckley 
to  accept  the  rule  of  Andros,  to  take  a  seat  upon  his 
Council,  and,  after  the  Glorious  Revolution,  to  attempt 
no  very  strenuous  opposition  to  the  inclusion  of  Plym- 
outh in  the  Massachusetts  Charter  of  169 1.  He  saw  that 
it  was  idle  for  them  to  expect  consideration  from  William 
III,  on  the  score  of  such  past  legal  rights  as  the  Mas- 
sachusetts colonists  unquestionably  had.  It  was  entirely 
within  the  law  for  the  King's  officials  to  claim  that  the 
Plymouth  colonists  had  never  possessed  authority.  Nor 
was  the  choice  before  them  apparently  that  of  continued 
independence  or  annexation  to  Massachusetts.  Rhode 
Island,  Connecticut,  and  New  York  were  all  apparently 
anxious  to  absorb  them  and  had  been  for  some  consider- 
able time.  These  pretensions  to  superior  authority  over 
Plymouth  on  the  part  of  the  other  colonies,  these  claims 
that  the  Plymouth  territory  was  included  in  the  patents 
already  granted  to  others,  were  old  and  not  infrequently 
asserted  in  the  past.  In  1634  an  attempt  was  made  by 
an  Englishman  to  proceed  above  the  Plymouth  grant  on 
the  Kennebec,  and  there  establish  an  Indian  trading 
post  which  would  intercept  the  trade  before  it  reached 
the  Pilgrim  territory.  The  Pilgrims  forbade  him  to  go 
but  he  was  determined  to  proceed,  and  in  an  endeavor  to 
prevent  him  perhaps  by  some  little  hustling  and  pushing, 
a  musket  was  discharged  and  a  man  killed.  Some  little 
excitement  was  caused  in  Boston  by  the  news,  and,  when 
one  of  the  Plymouth  ships  put  in  to  Boston  Harbor  some- 
what later,  the  authorities  imprisoned  Alden,  although 
they  allowed  the  ship  to  proceed.  This  was  an  evident 
claim  of  jurisdiction  over  the  Plymouth  men,  who  were 
nonplussed  to  know  what  to  do.  After  deliberation,  they 
sent  Standish  to  Boston  with  letters  demanding  Alden's 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  283 

release,  and  explaining  their  rights  on  the  Kennebec. 
Alden  was  indeed  allowed  to  go  free  but  was  required 
to  give  bond  for  further  appearance,  and  Standish  as  well 
was  bound  to  appear  at  the  next  session  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Court,  and  was  ordered  to  produce  a  copy  of  the 
patent  and  testify  in  regard  to  the  affair.  There  could 
have  been  no  conceivably  clearer  claim  of  jurisdiction  and 
superiority  than  this.  After  some  correspondence  and 
visiting,  a  great  deal  of  explaining  and  insisting,  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Colony  was  gotten  to  accept  the  Pilgrim's 
explanation,  although  no  definite  withdrawal  of  their 
assumed  rights  seems  to  have  been  made.1 

Two  years  later  Hooker's  colonists  appeared  on  the 
Connecticut  and  proceeded  to  occupy  as  waste  land  a 
considerable  tract  which  the  Pilgrims  had  bought  from 
the  Indians.  It  was  furthermore  entirely  outside  the 
Massachusetts  boundaries,  though  this  fact  was  prob- 
ably not  known  at  the  time.  Despite  the  protestations 
of  Jonathan  Brewster,  the  Pilgrim  agent  on  the  spot,  the 
Connecticut  men  settled  the  land  and  had  no  primary 
intention  to  leave  the  Pilgrims  any  of  it.  After  much  ado, 
with  protests  and  visits,  they  were  finally  gotten  to 
recognize  the  Pilgrim  title,  on  condition  that  the  Pil- 
grims should  immediately  transfer  it  to  them,  reserving 
only  a  small  portion  as  a  basis  for  their  trade.  However 
satisfactory  this  technical  endorsement  of  the  Pilgrim 
jurisdiction  may  have  been,  it  was  certainly  disconcerting 
to  find  colonists  of  their  own  race  and  religious  per- 
suasion, entirely  unwilling  to  recognize  their  legal  posi- 
tion in  the  new  country.  Considerable  bitterness  long  re- 
mained at  Plymouth  over  this,  as  Bradford  is  forced  to 

1  Bradford  relates  the  affair  at  some  length.  History,  377-379, 
382. 


284  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

admit.  And  so,  too,  the  Pilgrims  felt  that  the  Mas- 
sachusetts men  ought  to  have  aided  them  in  the  expulsion 
of  the  French  from  the  trading  post  on  the  Penobscot, 
seized  by  the  latter  in  1635,  and  which  the  Pilgrims  failed 
to  retake.1  In  1638  an  incident  occurred  which  was 
more  reassuring.2  Four  indented  servants  ran  away  from 
Plymouth  and  murdered  an  Indian  in  the  western  part 
of  the  jurisdiction,  and,  when  they  landed  in  Rhode 
Island,  were  detained  for  the  deed  upon  the  complaint  of 
the  Indians,  who  demanded  justice.  Williams,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  the  Plymouth  people,  for  the  deed  had  been 
committed  not  only  by  Plymouth  servants  but  in  Plym- 
outh territory,  referred  the  cause  to  the  authorities  in 
Boston,  who,  mindful  perhaps  of  the  late  dispute  in  the 
case  of  Alden,  referred  it  back  to  Plymouth.  Thither 
the  men  were  eventually  brought,  tried  for  their  crime, 
and  executed. 

The  following  year  an  active  dispute  arose  with  Mas- 
sachusetts as  to  the  boundaries  of  the  colony.  Bradford 
declared  that  the  Pilgrims  held  their  land  by  right  of 
purchase  from  the  Indians,  confirmed  by  the  King,  to 
which  Winthrop  replied,  "it  was  the  first  I  heard  of  it 
and  it  would  be  hard  to  make  their  title  good  and  as  hard 
to  proue  their  grant  to  them."  3  Indeed  not  only  were 
the  exact  limits  of  the  Warwick  patent  debated,  but,  as 
Winthrop  hints,  its  validity  to  confer  anything  upon 
them  was  questioned.  Rhode  Island  similarly  raised 
a  number  of  questions  as  to  the  ownership  of  particu- 

1  Bradford,  History,  420-422. 

2  Ibid.,  432. 

3  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  4th  Series,  VI,  156.  There  are  in  this 
same  volume  many  letters  upon  this  aspect  of  Pilgrim  relations. 
Bradford's  account  in  the  History,  439-443,  is  very  full. 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  285 

lar  districts.  The  Plymouth  men  retorted  by  claiming 
Providence.  They  also  laid  claim  to  Shawomet  (now 
Warwick,  R.  I.) ;  Massachusetts  men  were  sent  to  occupy 
it;  and  blows  were  very  nearly  exchanged,  but  the  Plym- 
outh title  was  finally  admitted.  It  was  at  this  time,  in 
1639  and  1640  that  the  Plymouth  men  first  became  con- 
scious of  the  desire  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 
to  annex  the  whole  of  their  territory. 

This  knowledge  made  them  hesitate  somewhat  to 
enter  into  the  New  England  Confederation  which  was  at 
this  time  suggested.  In  the  first  meetings  of  the  men  at 
Boston,  who  thought  it  useful  for  the  settling  of  such 
disputes  as  have  just  been  mentioned,  consideration 
was  also  given  to  the  attaining  for  Massachusetts  of 
"some  preeminence."  This  was  in  1638,  and  no  doubt 
the  fact  and  the  disposition  of  Massachusetts  to  lord  it 
somewhat  over  the  others  was  thoroughly  well  known 
and  appreciated.  It  probably  explains  in  particular 
the  arrival  of  the  Plymouth  delegates  in  1643  for 
the  final  act  of  organization  without  power  to  sign. 
No  adequate  investigation  of  the  history  of  the  New 
England  Confederation  seems  as  yet  to  have  been  made, 
but  it  would  be  out  of  place  in  this  book  to  detail  at 
length  the  experience  of  Plymouth  in  the  Confederation 
or  attempt  the  story  of  the  Confederation  itself.  The 
events  in  its  history  were  not  closely  associated  with  the 
affairs  of  Plymouth  nor  was  Plymouth  able  to  play  any 
very  considerable  part  in  their  decision.  Together  with 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  the  Plymouth  men  pretty 
commonly  stood  out  solidly  against  the  attempts  of 
Massachusetts  to  dominate  and  direct.  Frequently 
they  were  able  to  succeed,  but,  on  questions  of  real  im- 
portance,   upon   which   the   Massachusetts   men   were 


286  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

thoroughly  determined,  the  latter  were  unfortunately 
able  to  compel  the  acceptance  of  action  by  the  others  or 
to  nullify  the  action  which  the  others  wished  to  under- 
take. So  far  as  Plymouth  is  concerned,  the  colony  seems 
to  have  entered  the  Confederation  with  the  expectation 
that  New  Haven  and  Connecticut  would  assist  her  in  the 
preservation  of  her  independence  and  in  thwarting  the 
ambitious  claims  of  Massachusetts.  Certainly  those  of 
Rhode  Island  could  thus  be  forestalled.1  The  four  New 
England  colonies  thoroughly  agreed  in  their  dislike  and 
distrust  of  the  "  Islanders." 

Constant  attempts  were  made  by  the  Massachusetts 
Commissioners  to  emphasize  in  one  way  or  another  their 
superiority  over  Plymouth,  which  were  generally  re- 
ceived quietly  by  the  Plymouth  men  and  pushed  to  one 
side.  The  question  was  never  entirely  settled  but  no 
open  quarrel  took  place.  Plymouth  was  never  quite 
sure  that  Massachusetts  accepted  the  legality  of  her 
authority,  the  reality  of  her  independence,  or  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  boundaries  assigned  her.2  In  1660  the 
Restoration  caused  all  the  colonies  to  feel  that  greater 
circumspection  was  essential,  and  the  New  England 
Confederation,  an  extra-legal  association,  they  thought 
likely  to  meet  criticism  in  England  and  accordingly 

1  "Concerning  the  Islanders,"  wrote  Bradford  to  Winthrop,  "we 
have  no  conversing  with  them,  nor  desire  to  have,  furder  then 
necessitie  or  humanity  may  require."    May  17,  1642.    History,  463. 

2  The  General  Court  at  Boston  issued  an  order  on  March  7, 
1644,  for  the  release  of  Randal  Holden,  and  the  New  Plymouth 
agents,  and  their  banishment  from  Massachusetts  on  pain  of 
death.  State  Papers  Colonial,  XI,  No.  1.  See  also  the  case  of  the 
Schism  in  the  Church  at  Rehobah  in  1649  in  which  the  Massa- 
chusetts General  Court  also  interfered — Goodwin,  Pilgrim  Re- 
public, 515. 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  287 

they  allowed  it  to  fall  somewhat  into  disuse.  Certainly 
it  became  less  active.  The  absorption  of  New  Haven 
into  Connecticut  in  1667  left  only  three  colonies,  and 
still  further  weakened  the  position  of  Plymouth,  though 
no  doubt  it  roused  its  apprehensions.  There  was  no 
surprise  therefore  in  Plymouth  when  they  learned  in 
1690  that  the  Massachusetts  men  were  ambitious  to 
extend  the  limits  of  their  boundary  on  the  south  so  as 
to  include  the  Plymouth  jurisdiction,  and  that  the  Rhode 
Island  men  were  also  anxious  to  secure  a  new  patent, 
which  would  beyond  doubt  give  them  possession  of 
Plymouth.  We  cannot  be  entirely  sure,  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  authorities  at  Plymouth  allowed  it  to  be  known  in 
London  that  they  preferred  annexation  to  Massachusetts. 
Truth  to  tell  the  two  colonies  had  long  been  practically 
one  in  many  ways.  Very  early  the  economic  centre  of 
New  England  had  shifted  to  Boston  and  the  fact  that 
Plymouth  was  merely  a  part  of  its  economic  area  was 
soon  thrust  upon  them.  As  early  as  1640,  Plymouth 
had  practically  ceased  to  trade  direct  with  England 
and  bought  from  and  sold  to  Boston.  The  western  towns 
of  the  jurisdiction  had  for  the  most  part  been  settled 
from  the  Bay  Colony  and  had  their  economic  affiliations 
with  it  from  the  first  rather  than  with  Plymouth  itself. 
There  was  no  wrenching  or  tearing  therefore  of  natural 
associations  in  169 1.  Politically  Plymouth  was  absorbed 
with  ease  into  the  Massachusetts  Town  System  and 
merely  sent  its  deputies  to  Boston  instead  of  to  Plym- 
outh. Indeed  the  Massachusetts  representative  system 
had  grown  up  inside  the  older  Pilgrim  system  and 
had  by  1691  taken  control  of  it.  The  reality  of  local 
independence  was  not  disturbed,  and  was  rather  better 
assured  under  the  Massachusetts  system  than  under  the 


288  The  Pilgrims  and  their  History 

previous  rule  of  Plymouth,  where  the  General  Court  had 
always  technically  possessed  a  paramount  authority  over 
the  towns  which  the  latter  had  then  found  it  difficult  to 
endure.  So  far  as  political  leadership  was  concerned, 
too,  there  had  been  little  in  Plymouth  Colony  for  some 
decades.  Certainly  the  town  of  Plymouth  had  itself 
been  incapable  of  the  direction  of  affairs  and  the  other 
towns  were  unwilling  to  concede  it  to  each  other.  There 
was  indeed  no  intellectual  group  of  men  in  the  jurisdic- 
tion capable  of  that  degree  of  administrative  direction 
needed  to  offset  the  influence  of  so  large  and  admirably 
organized  a  community  as  the  Bay  Colony  was. 

Nor  was  political  independence  any  longer  essential 
to  insure  the  perpetuation  of  the  prime  fact  of  the  Pilgrim 
creed  which  they  had  sacrificed  so  much  to  establish. 
Separation  from  the  Established  Church  of  England  and 
the  rejection  of  its  Ordination  as  insufficient  was  already 
a  fact  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  inclusion  of  Plymouth 
within  the  larger  jurisdiction  perpetuated  and  strength- 
ened the  Pilgrim  ecclesiastical  position.  Indeed  it  was 
more  than  possible  that  the  continued  independence  of 
Plymouth  might  have  given  color  to  an  interference 
from  the  Established  Church  in  England,  which  the 
inclusion  within  Massachusetts  made  less  probable. 
The  doctrinal  differences  between  the  Puritan  and  Pil- 
grim Churches  had  been  from  the  first  slight  and  had 
not  been  considered  important  by  Brewster  and  Brad- 
ford. They  had  been  thoroughly  minimized  and  had 
indeed  chiefly  disappeared  by  the  foundation  from  Massa- 
chusetts of  the  newer  towns  in  Plymouth  jurisdiction 
and  by  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  ministers  out- 
side of  the  town  of  Plymouth  itself  came  from  Massa- 
chusetts. 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  289 

The  truth  seems  to  be  that  Massachusetts  did  not  in 
any  literal  sense  absorb  Plymouth  or  Plymouth  leaven 
Massachusetts.  They  had  grown  together  in  the  course 
of  a  century,  had  not  merely  developed  side  by  side, 
and  emerged  in  1700  a  new  political,  economic,  ecclesi- 
astical, and  social  entity,  different  from  either  at  the 
beginning,  certainly  different  from  the  plans  originally 
projected  by  the  leaders  of  both,  and  on  the  whole  more 
satisfactory  to  the  people  in  each  than  the  Government 
of  either  had  been  before.  The  political  independence 
of  Plymouth  had  indeed  become  an  anomaly  which  ig- 
nored the  real  fact  that  its  towns  were  now  an  integral 
part  of  a  new  entity  and  as  such  shared  in  a  new  type  of 
political  life  and  activity.  In  this  new  state  the  control 
of  the  Church  was  immeasurably  less.  The  real  reason 
for  the  dominance  over  the  State  by  the  Church  at 
Plymouth  and  of  the  social  and  economic  life  by  both 
combined  had  now  disappeared.  The  ecclesiastical  posi- 
tion, which  they  had  come  to  New  England  to  establish, 
and  which  they  had  felt  needed  such  protection  from  the 
State,  was  assured  beyond  a  possibility  of  doubt.  It 
was  now  obvious  that  civil  affairs  might  be  conducted 
upon  the  basis  of  temporal  needs  and  expedient  policy, 
that  economic  and  social  questions  might  now  be  handled 
without  primary  relation  to  the  stability  of  State  or 
Church  and  might  hence  be  decided  on  their  merits.  The 
influx  of  population  they  no  longer  feared  and  there  was 
not  the  same  necessity  of  scrutinizing  so  carefully  the 
newcomers  or  of  a  restriction  of  their  acquisition  of 
political,  economic,  and  social  privilege.  The  reason 
therefore  for  political  independence  had  disappeared. 
Nor  was  there  justifiability  for  the  economic  and  political 
inconvenience  of  different  boundaries  and  for  additional 


290  The  Pilgrims  atid  their  History 

machinery  for  administrative,  legislative,  and  judicial 
work.  Nothing  in  fact  seems  to  have  been  lost  in  1691. 
Nothing  was  destroyed. 

The  ideal  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers  was  perpetuated  by  a 
larger  and  stronger  state.  It  was  retained  not  merely 
at  Plymouth,  but  was  spread  by  the  outgoing  of  Plym- 
outh and  Massachusetts  men  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  a  great  continent.  Their  example  to 
posterity  was  preserved,  not  as  they  had  hoped  as  a  tiny 
candle  burning  in  seclusion,  but  as  a  beacon  light  for  the 
nations  to  see  throughout  the  ages,  taken  from  under  the 
bushel  and  set  upon  a  hill.  Bradford  quoted  Second 
Corinthians:  "As  unknowen  yet  knowen;  as  dead,  and 
behold  we  live."  The  loss  of  political  independence  de- 
prived the  Pilgrim  tradition  of  localism  and  made  it  a 
heritage  of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  In  the  days  of  the 
Revolution,  when  the  colonists  came  to  look  back  into 
their  own  past  and  study  somewhat  their  own  origin, 
they  all  regarded  Plymouth  as  a  general  possession,  not 
merely  as  the  tradition  of  one  state.  The  extinction  of 
formal  political  life  at  Plymouth  also  tended  to  scatter 
the  Pilgrims  throughout  the  United  States.  It  diffused 
the  blood  throughout  the  whole  and  leavened  the  lump 
with  the  example  of  Plymouth.  Not  at  Plymouth  itself 
has  been  the  true  influence  of  the  Pilgrims,  but  outside 
Plymouth  in  Massachusetts,  in  New  England  as  a  whole, 
and  in  those  far  parts  beyond  the  mountains  to  which  in 
the  coming  centuries  so  many  valiant  sons  of  the  old 
colony  were  to  migrate,  and  where  so  many  thousands 
of  their  lineal  descendants  are  now  to  be  found.  There 
are  now  more  sons  of  the  Pilgrims  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  than  in  Massachusetts,  more  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
than  in  Plymouth.    The  failure  of  the  Pilgrims  to  per- 


The  Loss  of  Political  Independence  291 

petuate  the  political  independence  of  the  colony  is  per- 
haps not  the  least  important  of  their  successes.  They 
became  not  merely  the  progenitors  of  a  tiny  state,  but 
the  ancestors  of  a  nation.  "  Verily,  a  little  one  has  become 
a  thousand;  yea,  a  little  one,  a  great  nation." 


APPENDIX 

THE   NUMBER  OF  ROBINSON'S  LEYDEN  CONGREGATION 

The  most  considerable  expenditure  of  time  and  effort  ever 
yet  devoted  to  Pilgrim  history  is  the  attempt  of  Dr.  Dexter 
and  his  son  to  ascertain  the  number  and  personnel  of  Robin- 
son's Church  and  Congregation  at  Leyden.  The  histories  of 
the  Pilgrims  at  Leyden  and  in  America,  written  during  the 
last  forty  years,  have  been  based  upon  the  assumption  that 
the  estimate  of  the  total  Congregation  by  the  Dexters  at  a 
figure  of  about  five  hundred  was  reliable  and  authoritative. 
The  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  Congregation  was  of  course 
a  much  more  difficult  matter  and  for  that  the  Dexters  did  not 
venture  to  give  a  definite  figure.  Upon  the  assumption  that 
Robinson's  Congregation  was  large,  Dexter's  England  and 
Holland  of  the  Pilgrims  was  based  and  all  the  calculations 
and  figures  in  it  regarding  births,  deaths,  marriages,  res- 
idence, business  transactions  are  dependent  upon  the  belief 
that  the  four  hundred  and  seventy-three  names  given  in  the 
Appendix  were  the  Congregation.  Whether  or  not  the  people 
to  whom  these  facts  relate  were  or  were  not  members  of 
Robinson's  Church  is  therefore  the  vital  issue  in  dealing  with 
the  history  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Leyden.  Both  Dr.  Dexter  and 
his  son  realized  the  extraordinary  difficulties  in  which  this 
calculation  involved  them,  but  it  seems  still  worth  while  to 
discuss  these  critical  problems.  So  large  a  figure  seems  not 
entirely  consistent  with  the  direct  testimony  of  the  Pilgrims 
and  with  other  known  facts.  Indeed,  it  is  possible  to  quote 
Mr.  Morton  Dexter  against  himself.  In  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 
Proc,  2nd  Series,  XVII,  167-184,  he  gave  the  names  of  117 

293 


294  Appendix 

persons  of  whose  membership  we  were  positive  and  of  91 
persons  almost  certainly  associated  with  them.  He  stated 
further  that  the  Congregation  probably  did  not  exceed  in 
1620  two  hundred  people  and  was  in  all  probability  between 
one  hundred  and  one  hundred  and  fifty.  When  he  came  later, 
however,  to  publish  the  book  in  1905,  he  printed  in  the 
Appendix  a  first  category  of  473  names  who  were  "certainly 
or  presumably"  members  of  Robinson's  Congregation  and 
stated  also  his  opinion  that  the  total  membership  from  1609- 
1620  cannot  have  fallen  short  of  five  hundred.  Upon  the 
assumption  that  the  whole  four  hundred  seventy-three 
were  members,  he  then  bases  his  statistics.  Is  it  not  sur- 
prising that  he  should  have  thus  abandoned  his  first  category 
of  those  whose  connection  with  the  Church  could  be  pos- 
itively demonstrated  and  have  based  his  volume  upon  those 
who  were  only  " presumably  "  members?  The  "presumably  " 
entirely  deprives  the  whole  list  of  finality. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
Dr.  Dexter's  results,  considerable  as  they  may  seem,  are  de- 
pendent in  the  first  place  literally  upon  the  possibility  of 
accurately  transliterating  English  names  from  the  phonetic 
spelling  used  by  the  Dutch  recorders.  The  significant  thing 
to  demonstrate  is  the  reliability  of  the  process  of  translitera- 
tion, the  extent  to  which  pure  conjecture  and  guess  work  can 
be  excluded  from  it.  The  difficulty  of  the  work  was  appalling 
and  required  unlimited  patience,  great  ingenuity,  the  utmost 
caution,  to  say  nothing  of  a  knowledge  of  both  Dutch  and 
English  phonetics  in  the  seventeenth  century,  neither  of 
them  subjects  beyond  dispute.  For  instance,  is  "Ament" 
Hammond;  "Chinheur"  Singer;  "Ians"  Jones?  Do  "So- 
dert,"  "Sodwoot"  and  "Houthward"  all  equal  "South- 
worth"  or  do  they  stand  for  different  individuals?  The 
Dexters  could  not  entirely  rid  themselves  of  the  fear  that 


Appendix  295 

some  proportion  of  these  transliterations  represented  their 
own  eagerness  to  discover  at  Leyden  some  trace  of  people 
known  to  have  been  at  Plymouth.  Those  who  have  followed 
the  Dexters  will  not  find  this  difficulty  insurmountable. 
There  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the  list  of  four  hundred 
and  seventy-three  names  is  the  maximum  which  science  and 
diligence  can  recover. 

The  more  considerable  difficulty  is  after  all  the  truly 
significant  point:  the  connection  with  Robinson's  Church  of 
English  people  known  to  have  been  at  Leyden  between  1609- 
1620.  Direct  evidence  furnishes  us  with  relatively  few  iden- 
tifications and  for  the  rest  we  must  erect  an  elaborate  struc- 
ture of  presumptions  and  probabilities.  For  the  number 
whose  membership  direct  evidence  substantiates  are  very 
clearly  only  a  very  small  portion  of  the  Church,  and  as  we 
can  perhaps  be  quite  sure  that  any  membership  list  will  not 
include  all  members,  certain  assumptions  become  necessary. 
Dr.  Dexter  concluded  that  the  wives  and  children  of  the  men 
of  the  Congregation  must  be  treated  also  as  members;  that 
Englishmen  known  to  have  had  business  or  legal  associations 
with  known  members  of  the  Congregation  were  probably  also 
members;  and  lastly,  that  those  who  could  be  shown  to  be 
members  immediately  after  1620  were  in  all  probability  mem- 
bers immediately  before  the  emigration  of  the  Pilgrims. 
The  justice  of  these  assumptions  is  obvious  and  the  difficulties 
which  they  might  involve  in  an  attempt  not  to  assume  too 
much  were  also  clear  to  those  who  have  subsequently  utilized 
this  book.  The  Dexters'  list,  however,  includes  one  hundred 
and  twenty  children,  many  of  whom  died  in  infancy,  the 
majority  of  whom  were  under  ten  years  of  age  in  1620,  and 
who  were  therefore  babes  in  arms  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
Leyden  period.  Only  a  relatively  few  of  the  children  were 
old  enough  to  be  counted  as  active  members  of  the  Congre- 


296  Appendix 

gation,  and  in  an  attempt  to  reach  some  notion  of  the  real 
size  of  that  body  in  practical  affairs,  we  must  subtract  at 
least  one  hundred  children. 

We  know  also  from  Bradford  that  a  considerable  number 
of  the  boys  and  girls,  who  attained  anything  resembling  an 
age  of  discretion,  left  the  Congregation,  and  for  them  too 
some  allowance  must  be  made.  A  considerable  number  of  the 
adult  men  on  this  list  were  married  more  than  once  at  Leyden, 
and  in  many  cases  two  and  in  some  three  wives  are  counted 
in  the  total  on  the  strength  of  their  relationship  to  one  man. 
Here  again  is  a  necessary  deduction,  if  we  are  to  reach  from  a 
total  figure  of  members  from  1 609-1 620  any  approximate 
notion  of  the  strength  of  the  Congregation  at  any  one  time. 
It  will  also  be  clear  that  if  the  membership  of  a  man  is  at  all 
doubtful,  by  the  time  we  have  counted  his  wife  and  children 
we  have  multiplied  our  error  several  fold.  If  we  accept  John 
Jennings,  we  also  count  both  of  his  wives,  six  children,  the 
wives  of  his  children,  and  his  grandchildren.  The  son  of 
Thomas  Willet,  born  in  16 10,  reached  Plymouth  in  1631. 
On  the  score  of  that  fact  Thomas  Willet  himself,  his  wife, 
five  children,  and  his  sister  are  added  to  the  Congregation. 

The  assumption  in  regard  to  the  men  who  had  business  rela- 
tions with  members  of  the  Congregation  is  a  more  fruitful 
source  of  difficulty.  If  we  accept  a  man  or  a  woman  who  is  a 
witness  at  betrothals  or  who  guarantees  for  citizenship  or 
other  purposes  known  Pilgrims,  shall  we  also  count  the  other 
English  people  for  whom  he  witnesses,  and  if  not  all  of  them, 
how  many  of  them?  If  we  accept  those  men  for  whom  the 
Pilgrims  themselves  certify,  shall  we  accept  those  for  whom 
they  in  turn  certify?  Nor  must  we  forget  that  in  each  case 
we  add  to  the  list  the  wives,  children,  brothers,  sisters,  and 
in  some  cases  mothers  and  fathers  of  men  whose  sole  iden- 
tification is  the  fact  that  they  become  guarantors  for  a  man, 


Appendix  297 

who  is  assumed  on  other  grounds  to  have  had  business  rela- 
tions with  one  of  the  lesser  known  Pilgrims.  It  seemed  worth 
while  to  compute  from  Dr.  Dexter's  list  the  number  of  in- 
dividuals whose  membership  depended  solely  on  legal  rela- 
tions with  men  or  women  of  whose  membership  we  were  not 
positive.  This  computation  therefore  will  not  include  those 
who  vouch  for  Brewster,  Carver,  Cushman,  and  the  like,  the 
partners  in  the  purchase  of  the  Great  House,  or  the  men  and 
women  for  whom  they  directly  vouched.  We  can  perhaps 
afford  to  assume  that  any  clear  business  relationship  involving 
a  certification  of  good  character,  either  by  the  leaders  or  for 
them,  raises  a  satisfactory  presumption  of  membership.  But 
what  of  those  men  and  women  whose  mutual  testimony 
seems  to  be  the  principal  basis  for  considering  them  members 
at  all?  Fifty-four  men  and  twelve  women  were  witnesses  of 
legal  documents  and  on  the  strength  of  their  membership 
thirty-six  wives  and  twelve  children  were  also  included  in 
the  list,  making  one  hundred  and  nineteen  in  all.  There  are 
also  in  Dr.  Dexter's  list  seventy-five  men  for  whose  member- 
ship the  evidence  is  subsequent  to  1620,  and  with  them  were 
counted  fifty-nine  wives  and  twelve  children.  There  were 
therefore  in  all  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  out  of  four  hundred 
and  seventy-three  whose  membership  is  doubtful. 

How  can  we  now  raise  a  presumption  as  to  what  proportion 
of  the  doubtful  cases  were  members?  According  to  the  first 
computation  of  Mr.  Morton  Dexter,  only  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  names,  including  children,  could  be  established 
with  certainty,  leaving  three  hundred  and  fifty-six  more  or 
less  doubtful.  According  to  the  computation  just  made, 
two  hundred  and  sixty-five  names  are  really  dubious.  There 
are  certain  facts  which  will  be  of  assistance  in  the  raising  of 
a  more  definite  presumption  as  to  the  total  number  of  the 
Congregation  and  as  to  its  probable  figure  in  1620. 


298  Appendix 

1.  Bradford  and  Winslow  tell  us  that  when  the  vote  was 
taken  on  the  question  of  migration  to  America,  the  number 
who  decided  to  go  was  only  a  trifle  less  than  those  who  voted 
to  stay.  Thirty-five  only  sailed  from  Ley  den  for  Plymouth. 
We  know  also  that  some  who  had  originally  intended  to  go 
changed  their  minds  in  March  or  April,  1620,  after  the  re- 
jection by  the  merchants  in  London  of  the  terms  which 
Weston  had  signed.  Eighteen  also  returned  to  London  on 
the  Speedwell,  some  of  whom  certainly  came  from  Leyden, 
most  of  whom  certainly  did  not.  If  we  count  the  entire 
eighteen,  however,  those  who  started  number  only  fifty-five, 
and  we  must  then  assume  a  very  considerable  defection  in 
April,  if  we  are  to  predicate  the  original  number  who  voted  to 
emigrate  at  more  than  sixty-five  or  seventy,  or  believe  the 
total  Congregation  at  that  time  was  over  one  hundred  and 
fifty,  all  of  these  figures  of  course  including  children.  We  also 
know  that  the  number  of  people  of  the  Leyden  Congregation 
who  eventually  reached  Plymouth  was  eighty-two.  Surely 
a  first  party  of  thirty-five  and  a  subsequent  migration  of 
forty-seven  is  a  very  small  figure  for  a  Congregation  of 
several  hundred.  If  we  assume  that  five  hundred  were  mem- 
bers from  1 609-1 6  20  and  that  only  one  hundred  and  fifty 
were  actually  members  in  1620,  the  personnel  of  the  Con- 
gregation must  have  changed  with  a  rapidity  and  to  an  ex- 
tent which  the  Pilgrim  accounts  do  not  suggest. 

2.  It  seems  probable  from  Bradford  that  the  first  idea  was 
that  the  whole  Congregation  should  go;  that  they  might  all 
embark  upon  one  ship  and  might  finance  the  venture  them- 
selves without  recourse  to  capitalists.  The  first  charter  they 
attempted  to  procure  assumed  that  they  would  finance  their 
own  venture,  which  seems  to  have  been  urged  in  their  favor 
to  the  Virginia  Company.  But  is  this  not  totally  inconsistent 
with  a  Congregation  of  three  hundred  let  us  say,  in  1620, 


Appendix  299 

which  would  surely  not  be  an  unfair  figure  if  the  total  mem- 
bership for  ten  years  was  five  hundred?  Is  it  probable  again 
that  the  first  computation  contemplated  taking  between 
two  hundred  and  three  hundred  people  without  assistance 
from  capitalists  and  that  they  eventually  with  very  consider- 
able assistance  were  able  to  provide  for  no  more  than  thirty- 
five  from  Leyden  and  one  hundred  and  two  in  all? 

3.  We  know  also  from  Bradford  and  Winslow  that  the 
Congregation  failed  to  grow  in  Leyden  as  they  felt  it  should. 
Now  all  calculations  based  upon  adequate  growth  are  de- 
pendent upon  some  definite  knowledge  of  the  number  who 
first  reached  Leyden.  This  we  lack.  But  a  reasonable  pre- 
sumption can  be  raised  that  not  more  than  one  hundred  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  came,  because  a  larger  number 
would  be  inconsistent  with  the  sort  of  flight  from  England 
they  attempted.  The  movement  of  a  more  considerable  num- 
ber of  people  on  boats  down  the  river  or  walking  over  land 
would  have  attracted  attention  a  good  deal  quicker  than  it 
did.  If,  then,  about  one  hundred  came  and  the  total  mem- 
bership within  ten  years  reached  five  hundred,  and  the 
probable  residuum  in  1620  was  perhaps  not  less  than  two 
hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred,  it  would  seem  that  either 
their  expectations  of  growth  were  unreasonable  or  our  cal- 
culation is  somewhere  in  error.  To  have  doubled  the  actual 
number  in  ten  years  would  seem  satisfactory  for  a  people  in 
exile.  On  the  other  hand,  if  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
people  had  come  and  the  actual  Congregation  in  1620  was 
between  one  hundred  and  fifty  and  two  hundred,  their  com- 
plaint of  the  failure  of  people  to  resort  to  them  would  have 
more  foundation.  It  is  a  positive  fact  that  they  felt  the 
growth  of  the  Congregation  highly  unsatisfactory  and  with 
it  somehow  or  other  our  estimate  of  the  Congregation's  num- 
ber must  agree. 


300  Appendix 

4.  We  also  know  that  at  Leyden  the  whole  Congregation 
met  throughout  its  history  in  one  house,  which  they  bought 
in  1 6 10.  If  they  then  estimated  that  so  large  a  house  was 
required  and  had  during  the  next  decade  at  least  five  times 
as  many  members  at  one  time  or  another,  is  it  not  surprising 
that  a  larger  meeting  place  was  not  required?  We  know  also 
something  about  the  house.  The  lot,  as  measured  by  Dexter, 
after  inspection  of  the  old  plans,  measured  twenty-five  feet 
wide  on  the  street  by  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  deep. 
Behind  this  lot  was  another  very  much  larger  lot  on  which  was 
eventually  built  twenty-one  small  houses.  In  Dr.  Dexter's 
opinion  only  about  half  of  the  first  lot  was  occupied  by  the 
"great  house,"  which  could  not  therefore  have  been  larger 
than  about  twenty-five  feet  by  seventy-five.  If  now  we  sup- 
pose that  the  entire  house  down-stairs  was  thrown  into  one 
room,  we  shall  not  get  in  more  than  three  hundred  people, 
and  we  can  only  conceivably  get  in  between  four  hundred  and 
fifty  and  five  hundred  if  we  assume  that  they  sat  upon  benches 
and  stools  as  close  to  one  another  as  possible.  From  what 
we  know,  however,  of  Dutch  domestic  architecture,  it  seems 
not  likely  that  the  house  was  so  constructed  that  the  whole 
lower  story  could  be  made  into  a  single  room,  without 
thoroughly  re-building  the  house.  So  far  as  we  know,  this 
was  not  done.  The  presumption  is  that  the  size  of  the  Con- 
gregation at  any  one  time  was  not  very  much  greater  than 
the  first  Congregation  that  arrived,  and  that  the  fifty  or 
seventy-five  additional  members  at  any  one  time  easily  found 
room  in  the  same  house. 

5.  We  also  get  a  distinct  idea  from  the  various  accounts 
that  Robinson's  Congregation  was  not  as  large  at  any  time 
as  that  of  the  other  English  Churches  in  Holland.  While  we 
have  no  very  definite  figures  about  them,  the  various  es- 
timates do  not  run  to  five  hundred  for  any  of  them  and  the 


Appendix  301 

Ancient  Church,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  largest,  was 
estimated  by  Bradford  himself  as  possessing  "at  some  times" 
three  hundred  members,  i.  e.,  was  usually  less. 

6.  It  seemed  interesting  to  attempt  a  computation,  based 
upon  Dr.  Dexter's  list,  which  should  estimate  the  positive 
and  probable  numbers  with  somewhat  less  rigidity  than  his 
first  account  published  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.  and  with 
somewhat  more  rigidity  than  his  second  computation,  which 
seems  rather  too  inclusive. 

The  lists  which  follow  contain  the  results. 

The  following  members  seem  to  be  certain  beyond  a  reason- 
able doubt:  37  men,  48  women,  67  children,  total,  152. 

The  following  seem  probable  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt: 
24  men,  24  women,  24  children;  72  in  all. 

Combining  the  two  lists  we  have:  61  men,  72  women,  91 
children,  total,  224. 

We  have  to  be  sure  counted  in  these  figures  minor  children 
and  wives  who  died  during  the  decade,  but  the  adult  men, 
sixty-one  in  all,  were  pretty  certainly  alive  in  1620,  and,  if 
we  assume  about  sixty  women  were  also  alive,  we  shall  have 
one  hundred  and  twenty-one  as  the  adult  Congregation. 
The  proportion  of  children  is  interesting  and  remarkable. 
A  reasonable  allowance  for  lack  of  evidence  now  would  seem 
to  make  two  hundred  the  probable  outside  figure  of  the  actual 
Congregation  in  1620,  and  perhaps  three  hundred  and  fifty 
as  the  total  probable  membership  during  the  ten  years. 


302  Appendix 

ROBINSON'S  LEYDEN  CONGREGATION 

Membership  positively  demonstrated 

Allerton,  Isaac,  wife,  five  children,  one  grandchild. 
Bassett,  William,  three  wives. 
Blossom,  Thomas,  wife,  three  children. 
Bradford,  William,  wife,  one  child. 
Brewer,  Thomas,  two  wives,  eight  children. 
Brewster,  William,  wife,  six  children,  son's  wife,  and  grand- 
child. 
Butler,  Mary. 

Carver,  John,  wife,  two  children. 
Crackstone,  John,  (widower?)  two  children. 
Cushman,  Robert,  two  wives,  three  children. 
Cuthbertson,  Cuthbert,  two  wives,  one  child. 
Fletcher,  Moses,  two  wives. 
Fuller,  Samuel,  three  wives,  one  child. 
Goodman,  John,  two  wives. 

Jenkins, -, 

Jenny,  John,  wife,  one  child. 

Jepson,  William,  wife,  three  children. 

Lee,  Bridget,  sister  of  Samuel. 

Lee,  Josephine,  mother  of  Samuel. 

Lee,  Samuel,  three  wives,  one  child. 

Morton,  George,  wife,  four  children. 

Morton,  Thomas,  brother  of  George,  and  one  child. 

Nash,  Thomas,  two  wives. 

Neal,  Elizabeth,  from  Scrooby,  married  William  Buckram. 

Peck,  Ann,  ward  of  William  Brewster. 

Pickering,  Edward,  and  wife. 

Pontus,  William,  wife  and  child. 

Priest,  Degory,  wife,  and  two  children. 

Ring,  William,  and  wife. 


Appendix  303 

Robinson,  John,  wife,  and  nine  children. 

Rogers,  Thomas,  one  child. 

Southworth,  Edward,  wife,  two  children. 

Southworth,  Thomas,  brother  of  Edward. 

Thickins,  Randall,  wife,  one  child. 

Tinker,  Thomas,  wife  and  child. 

Tracy,  Stephen,  wife  and  child. 

Turner,  John,  and  two  children. 

White,  William,  wife,  (Susanna  Fuller),  three  children. 

Williams,  Thomas. 

Wilson,  Roger,  and  wife. 

Winslow,  Edward,  and  wife. 

Wood,  Henry,  and  wife. 

Membership  probably  demonstrated 

Buckram,  William. 

Butterfield,  Stephen,  wife,  and  child. 

Carpenter,  Alexander,  (two  children  elsewhere  counted). 

Carpenter,  Priscilla. 

Ellis,  John,  two  wives,  one  child. 

Ellis,  Christopher,  wife,  three  children. 

England,  Thomas,  (English  of  the  Mayflower?) 

Fairfield,  Daniel,  wife,  three  children. 

Gray,  Abraham. 

Jennings,  John,  two  wives,  three  children,  son's  wife. 

Jepson,  Henry,  wife. 

Jessop,  Edmond,  two  wives,  one  child. 

Jessop,  Francis. 

Keble,  John,  wife,  four  children. 

Lisle,  William,  (children  elsewhere  counted). 

Masterson,  Richard,  and  wife. 

Pettinger,  Dorothy. 


304  Appendix 

Peck,  Robert,  two  wives,  two  children. 

Reynolds,  John,  and  wife. 

Simmons,  Roger,  and  wife. 

Smith,  Thomas. 

Terry,  Samuel,  and  wife. 

White,  Nicholas. 

Wilkins,  Roger,  two  wives,  one  child. 

Willett,  Thomas,  wife  and  five  children. 

Wilson,  Henry,  and  wife. 


INDEX 


Abbot,  George,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  54,  55 

Administration,  character  of  at 
Plymouth,  169,  202-219,  260- 
264; 275-277 

Ainsworth,  Henry,  leader  of  Sep- 
aratist congregation  at  Amster- 
dam, 33, 34, 42, 43, 185 

Alden,  John,  69,  88,  92,  108,  126, 
153,  172, 181,  205,  241,  242,  257, 
282,  283 

Allerton,  Isaac,  36,  68,  69,  88,  90, 
92,  108,  152,  191,  212,  230-234, 
241 

Ames,  A.,  notice  of  his  Log  of  the 
Mayflower,  50,  56,  58 

Amsterdam,  Pilgrims  at,  32-33 

Andros  regime  at  Plymouth,  256, 
275-277 

Anne,  the  ship,  94,  97,  105,  106, 
107,  145,  146 

Arber,  Edward,  notice  of  his  Pil- 
grim Fathers,  50,  56 

Assistants,  functions  of,  212,  215, 
221,  223,  260-261,  275 

Bancroft,  Richard,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  20,  24-26. 

Billington,  John,  68, 92, 131,  279 

Bishops,  hatred  of  Pilgrims  for, 
3-4,  22-24,  47,  186,  189;  atti- 
tude of  toward  the  Pilgrims,  1, 
18-26;  attitude  of  Pilgrims  to- 
ward, 184-185;  fears  of  interfer- 
ence from  in  America,  47-48, 51- 
54,  66,  7*2 

Blackwell,  Francis,  54-55,  57, 
64 


Boston,  Mass.,  92,  171,  174,  259, 

264,  265,  287,  288 
Bradford,  William,  in  England,  12- 

13,  18;  part  in  emigration  to 
Holland,  28-30;  personal  his- 
tory at  Leyden,  36,  41;  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  emigration  to 
America,  146;  his  share  in  the 
exodus,  68,  69,  71,  77,  78;  first 
months  in  America,  80,  81,  83, 
86,  88;  elected  governor,  90,  91, 
92;  functions  as  governor,  203- 
216;  patent  to,  142,  153,  155, 
156;  activities  of  at  Plymouth, 
120,  130-137,  146,  147, 166,  167, 
169,  174,  181,  193,  198,  199, 
205,  228,  241,  242,  256;  estimate 
of,  91,  108,  193,  203-206;  men- 
tioned or  quoted  passim. 

Bradford,  William,  History  of 
Plymouth  Plantation,  notes  on, 

14,  16,  33;  quoted  passim. 
Brewster,  Jonathan,  son  of  Elder 

Brewster,  10,  36,  283 

Brewster,  William,  father  of  Elder 
Brewster,  7,  8 

Brewster,  William,  Elder  of  Pil- 
grim Church,  early  life  in  Eng- 
land, 7-12,  17-27,  108;  exodus 
to  Holland,  28-30;  life  as  a 
printer  at  Leyden,  36-38;  chosen 
Elder,  40;  share  in  preparations 
for  emigration  to  America,  50- 
52,  56,  58,  61,  68,  69;  religious 
ideas  of,  189-190,  193-194;  at 
Plymouth,  81, 86, 87, 88, 92, 131, 
153,  169,  172,  181,  191,  205, 
231,  241,  247,  256,  267 


305 


306 


Index 


Cambridge  University,  England, 
Brewster  at,  8,  9;  Robinson  at, 
13;  Smyth  at,  10 

Carver,  John,  Deacon  at  Leyden, 
51,  68,  69;  governor  at  Plym- 
outh, 80,  86,  90 

Cattle,  none  on  Mayflower,  70,  76; 
at  Plymouth,  142,  154,  159,  160, 
176,  217,  223,  224,  235,  236,  237, 
238 

Charity,  the  ship,  130,  131,  132, 

•    148 

Chauncey,  Charles,  192. 

Children,  at  Leyden,  38,  39;  on 
Mayflower,  68,  69,  77;  at  Plym- 
outh, 88,  103-105, 160,  224,270- 
271,  273 

Church  of  England,  see,  England, 
Church  of 

Clifton,  Richard,  in  England,  10- 
12;  in  Holland,  30,  34 

Clothing,  81-82,  94,  97,  98,  159, 
168,  169,  236-238,  250-254 

Collier,  William,  181,  241,  242,  258 

Common  Stock,  the,  56-66;  95- 
97,  102-105,  108,  142-153 

Compact,  the  Pilgrim,  73-75,  210 

Congregationalism,  Pilgrims  ex- 
ponents of,  4,  10,  11,  13,  14,  17, 
40-45,  185,  190-191,  193,  194 

Connecticut,  171,  177,  180,  231, 
232,  234,  250,  283,  286 

Corn,  75-79,  91,  94-109,  223,  235 

Cotton,  John,  Jr.,  194,  256,  267, 
269,  270 

Council  for  New  England,  58, 
128, 129, 130, 143, 155, 156, 163, 
263-264,  278-279 

Courts,  at  Plymouth,  212-215, 
263 

Crown,  relation  of  Plymouth 
Colony  to,  263,  277-282 

Cushman,  Robert,  36,  51,  56,  57, 
63-66,  68,  103,  116,  142,  144 


Delfshaven,  65 

Dexter,  Rev.  H.  M.,  and  Morton, 
books  on  Pilgrims,  12, 33, 34,  69, 

293-304 
Dutch,  at  New  Netherlands,  171, 
229 

Education,  at  Plymouth,  270-272 

England,  Church  of,  hatred  of  Pil- 
grims for,  1-4,  22-24,  186,  188, 
189,  271-272;  attitude  of  to- 
ward Pilgrims,  1,  15, 18-26,  186; 
fear  of  interference  from,  47-48, 
51-54,  66,  72 

England,  Reformation  in,  influ- 
ence of  on  Pilgrims,  3-4,  17,  22- 
26,  183-189 

England,  relation  of  Plymouth 
Colony  to,  263,  277-282 

Financing  of  Pilgrim  voyage,  48- 

49,  57-64 

Fishing,  importance  of  in  Pilgrim 
plans,  48-49,  59,  75~7o,  96-97, 
179-180;  experience  of  Pil- 
grims with,  85,  99-100, 144-149, 
158,  228-234 

Food,  on  Mayflower,  70-71,  75- 
76;  at  Plymouth  in  first  years, 
93,  94-109,  113,  159;  in  later 
years,  168-169,  254-255 

Fortune,  the  ship,  91,  94,  97,  98, 

144,  145 

Franchise,  at  Plymouth,  209-211, 
225,  260,  262-264 

Freemen,  156,  204,  209,  210,  221, 
225,  228,  241,  260-263,  280 

Fuller,  Samuel,  88,  92,  172,  176, 
191,  195,  198 

Fur  trade,  importance  of  in  Pil- 
grim plans,  48,  49,  59,  75,  76, 
96-97,  115,  179-180;  experience 
of  Pilgrims  with,  136-139,  144- 
149,  158,  222,  227-228,  234 


Index 


307 


Furniture,  70,  76,  168-169,  236- 
238,  250-254 

Genealogy,  bibliography  for  Pil- 
grim, 82 

General  Court,  powers  and  func- 
tions of,  169,  181,  207,  209-210, 
215,  217-219,  221,  223,  226, 
260-263,  271,  275 

General  sickness,  86-88 

Governor,  position  and  powers  of, 
108,  203-205,  207,  210,  212-216, 
221,  223,  260-261,  275 

Health  of  Pilgrims,  86-88 

High  Commission,  Court  of,  for 

the  Province  of  York,  19-22 
Hinckley,    Thomas,    governor    of 

Plymouth,  258,  276-277 
Hobomok,  119,  124,  125 
Holland,  Brewster's  first  visit  to,  9; 
Pilgrims  in,  32-65;  archives  in,  15 
Hopkins,  Stevens,  68,  77,  80,  88- 

89,  92,  117,  238,  241,  244 
Howland,  John,  80,  92,  153,  181, 

237,  241,  257 

Indians,  first  Pilgrim  ideas  of,  45- 
46,  no;  importance  of  trade 
with,  48-49;  experiences  of 
Pilgrims  with,  75-79,  88-90,  93, 
95,  99,  101,  102,  110-124,  222; 
distribution  of  in  New  England, 
1 1 3-1 15;  Morton's  influence 
upon,  137-139;  trade  rights 
with  monopolized  by  Pilgrim 
leaders,  222,  228-234;  "king" 
Philip's  war,  265-266 

Inhabitants,  class  of  citizens  at 
Plymouth,  21 1-2 12,  224,  225, 
261-262 

James  I,  King  of  England,  6,  24, 

49,  5i>  54,  55 


Johnson,  George,  33,  34,  43,  55, 

185 
Jones  [Christopher],  58,  note,  65, 

67,  72,  78 
Juries,  214-215,  227 

Kennebec,  trading  station  on,  153, 
156,  228,  231,  234,  261,  282 

Land,  allotments  of,  103-104,  142, 
149,  150,  151,  154,  221-224 

Law,  at  Plymouth,  169,  207-209, 
212-215,  249-250,  263 

Leyden,  Pilgrims  at,  33-65;  ad- 
vantages of,  33;  disadvantages 
°f»  35-39;  size  of  Robinson's 
congregation  at,  293-304 

Little  James,  the  ship,  106,  145, 
147-148 

Lumber,  exports  of,  91-92,  223, 
236,  261 

Lyford,  John,  130-137 

Manufactures,  at  Plymouth,  236 

Martin,  Christopher,  63,  68 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  rela- 
tion to  Plymouth,  1 70-181,  202- 
203,  234,  250,  259,  264-265, 
267-269,  282-292 

Massasoit,  89,  90,  93,  99,  1 13,  1 16- 
118,  121 

Mayflower,  the  ship,  64,  65,  67; 
voyage  of,  68-81;  description  of, 
69-70;  in  1630, 155 

Merchant  Adventurers,  organiza- 
tion of,  58-66;  experiences  of 
Pilgrims  with,  95-97,  102-103, 
J33-i37,  142-153,  162,  221 

Morton,  Thomas,  137-141 

Mullins,  Priscilla,  68,  126 

Nauset,  plan  to  move  to,  181-182 
Neville,  Gervase,  trial  of,  20-22 


3o8 


Index 


New  England,  settlement  of,  165; 

relation  to  Plymouth,  165-182 
New  England  Confederation,  169, 

218,  256,  285-287 
New  Haven,  171,  177,  180,  234, 

250,  28£  *»     •;       » 

Oldham,  John,  130-137 

Patent,  to  Wincob,  56;  to  Peirce, 
59,  64,  72-74;  to  Bradford,  142, 

iS3,  155,  156 

Peirce,  John,  59,  64,  143,  150,  151 

Philip,  "king,"  256,  265-267 

Pilgrim  Church,  form  of,  at 
Scrooby,  11-14;  at  Leyden,  39- 
45;  at  Plymouth,  183-199,  267- 
270 

Pilgrim  Fathers,  meaning  of  the 
term,  2,  62 

Pilgrim  Movement,  place  in  his- 
tory, 1-2;  relation  to  Protestant 
Reformation,  2-4 

Pilgrims,  proper  use  of  term,  62, 
note;  at  Scrooby,  1-27;  early 
religious  ideas  of,  1,  11-14; 
exodus  to  Holland,  27-32;  at 
Leyden,  32-65;  number  of  at 
Leyden,  293-304;  economic  dif- 
ficulties of  at  Leyden,  35-39; 

1  religious  ideas  of  at  Leyden,  40- 
44;  discuss  emigration  to  Amer- 
ica, 45-58;  agreement  with 
Weston,  58-61;  voyage  to 
America,  65-75;  land  at  Pro- 
vincetown,  75;  explorations,  76- 
80;  land  at  Plymouth,  80-81; 
first  year  at  Plymouth,  83-93; 
solve  problem  of  subsistence, 
94-109;  relations  with  Indians, 
88-91,  1 10-125;  relations  with 
other  white  men  in  America, 
125-141;  relations  with  Mer- 
chant    Adventurers,     142-153; 


experiences  with  fishing  and 
trading,  145-149;  achievement 
of,  157-567;  influence  of  on 
New  England,  166-167;  in- 
fluence of  New  England  on 
Plymouth,  173-182;  ecclesias- 
tical ideas  of,  51-54,  183-199; 
political  and  administrative 
practice  of,  202-219;  ideas  of 
economic  status,  220-238;  ideas 
of  social  life,  239-255;  bibliog- 
raphy of  books  on,  14-16;  ap- 
pearance of,  81-82;  materials 
for  genealogy  of,  82;  distribu- 
tion of  in  English  homes,  69; 
influence  of  in  history,  1-2,  274, 
287-291 

Plymouth,  Mass.,  first  landing  at, 
79-81;  reasons  for  its  selection 
as  site,  83-84,  144;  appearance 
of  in  1627,  159-160;  allotments 
of  land  in,  154-155;  strategic 
weakness  of  after  1630, 178-182; 
town  government  of,  216,  288 

Plymouth  Harbor,  Mass.,  char- 
acter of,  79-84;  permanent  un- 
suitability  of,  179-180 

Plymouth,  Rock,  93 

Population,  68,  69,  88,  in,  112, 
159-160 

Prence,  Thomas,  153,  174,  181, 
241,  242,  247,  256-258 

Press,  the  Pilgrim,  36-38 

Provincetown,  Mass.,  Pilgrims  at, 
75-77,  80 

Puritan  party,  in  England,  char- 
acteristic form  of  organization 
of,  10,  condemned  by  Pilgrims 
because  unseparated,  24-26, 
183-189 

Puritans  in  America,  how  dis- 
tinguished from  Pilgrims,  183- 
189;  material  prosperity  of,  165, 
170-173 


Index 


309 


Quakers,  258-259,  262 

Reformation,  relation  of  Pilgrim 
movement  to,  2-4 

Reynor,  John,  192,  193,  242 

Rhode  Island,  171,  177,  178,  180, 
234,  250,  259,  264,  282,  284-286 

Robinson,  John,  in  England,  13-* 
14,  23-24;  at  Leyden,  34,  40-43, 
52,  61,  65,  66,  108;  theological 
views  of,  22-26,  193;  number  of 
congregation  of  at  Leyden,  34- 
35,  293-304;  advice  of  to  Brew- 
ster, 189-190;  death  of,  155,  190 

Roman  Catholics  in  neighborhood 
of  Scrooby,  5-6,  17,  19 

Samoset,  88-90 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  50,  52,  54,  56 

Scriptures,  importance  of  to  Pil- 
grims, 2-4,  23-24,  51,  239-240 

Scrooby,  description  of,  1,  4-7,  17;'' 
"Pilgrims"  at,  1-27;  other  ele- 
ments  at,    17-18;    number   on 
Mayflower  from,  68 

Scrooby,  Manor  of,  influence  of  on 
Pilgrim  practice,  164-165,  208- 
209,  214 

Separatism,  as  understood  by  the 
Pilgrims,  4,  10,  n,  13,  14,  17, 
22-26,  40-45,  183-189,  193 

Servants,  indentured,  63,  68,  69, 
85,  103,  104,  137-141,  159-160, 
211,  212,  224,  225,  249 

Shirley,  James,  153,  228-234 

Slaves,  at  Plymouth,  212,  224 

Smith,  Captain  John,  66 

Smith,  Ralph,  Pilgrim  minister, 
191,  192,  193,  198,  241 

Smyth,  John,  Separatist  minister, 
in  England,  10,  n;  in  Holland, 
33,  40-41 

Sojourners,  class  of  citizens  at 
Plymouth,  211,  224,  262 


Southampton,  Pilgrims  at,  66 
Speedwell,  the  ship,  62,  64,  65,  67, 

68,97 

Squanto,  89-92,  11 7-1 21 

Standish,  Miles,  59,  68,  69,  75,  77, 
78,  80,  87,  88,  90,  92,  99,  100, 
108,  110-126,  134,  140,  141,  146, 
153,  156,  169,  181,  205,  237,  241, 
257,  282 

Subsistence,  importance  of  early 
seen,  48;  solution  of,  94-109 

Taxation,  261 
Thanksgiving,  the  first,  93 
Towns,     in     Plymouth     Colony 
(other  than  Plymouth),  found- 
ing of,  178,  181,  216,  217,  265, 
269;  constitutional  position  of, 
217-218,    225-226;    administra- 
-tive  power  of ,  215,  217-218,  221, 
260;  relation  of  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts town  system,  287-289 

Undertakers,  the,  153,  169,  227- 
234 

Virginia,  47,  48,  50,  54,  57,  137, 

138 
Virginia  Company,  47,  50,  51,  56, 

58,  72,  73 

Weather,  at  Plymouth,  76-93, 
passim,  especially  77,  note,  84- 
86 

Weston,  Thomas,  negotiations 
with  the  Pilgrims  at  Leyden, 
58-61;  in  London,  63-66;  in 
America,  98,  99,  102,  122-124, 
127-129;  supposed  plot  of,  72-74 

Williams,  Roger,  at  Plymouth, 
191-192,  198;  at  Providence, 
171,  177-179,  181,  242,  284 

Wincob,  John,  Patent  to,  56 

Winslow,  Edward,  36,  68,  69,  72, 


3io 


Index 


80,  81,  83,  88,  90,  92,  108,  117, 
123,  136,  137,  146,  153,  169, 
174,  191,  195,  205,  231,  241, 
242,  256,  257,  279 

Winthrop,  John,  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  173,  176, 
197-199,  279,  284 

Witchcraft,  259 

Women,  position  of  at  Leyden,  38- 


39;  on  Mayflower,  68-69,  77—78; 
at  Plymouth,  88,  103-105,  160, 
210,  245-247,  250-254,  271,  273 

York,    Archbishop    of,    Lord    of 
Manor  of  Scrooby,  5-7,  18-22 

Zeeland,  colonization  of  considered 
by  Pilgrims,  58,  61 


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The  Heart  of  the  Puritan 

By  ELIZABETH  DEERING  HANSCOM 

$1.50 

The  purpose  of  this  volume  is  stated  by  the  editor  in 
these  words:  "I  determined  to  bring  together  in  one 
place  in  a  convenient  compendium,  as  it  were,  some 
gleanings  from  many  and  dusty  tomes,  some  fragments 
of  reality,  in  the  hope  that  from  them  might  radiate  for 
others,  as  for  me,  shafts  of  light  to  penetrate  the  past." 
The  result  is  unique  in  the  revelation  afforded  in  the 
Puritans'  own  words  of  their  daily  walk  and  conversa- 
tion and  of  that  inner  temper  which  governed  their 
public  acts.  The  range  is  from  orders  for  clothes  and 
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The  History  of  Religion 

By  E.  W.  HOPKINS 
Professor  of  English,  Yale  University. 

Cloth,  i2mo. 

It  has  been  the  author's  aim  in  this  work  to  present 
an  accurate  and  sufficiently  detailed  history  of  religions 
in  one  volume.  Up  to  the  present  time  histories  of  re- 
ligions have  either  been  too  diffuse  or  they  have  in- 
cluded only  the  advanced  religions,  with  perhaps  a  few 
words  as  to  primitive  beliefs.  Not  only  is  the  general 
foundation  of  religion  slighted  by  this  method  but  the 
intermediate  forms,  which  connect  the  lower  and  higher 
religions,  are  ignored.  The  author  has  endeavored  to 
take  a  wider  view.  He  has  accordingly  begun  with  the 
lowest  forms  of  religion  and  advancing  from  these,  the 
religions  of  savages  and  barbarians,  examined  those  of 
higher  but  still  comparatively  naive  character,  such  as 
the  early  religions  of  Europe,  the  Orient,  and  America, 
after  which  he  has  given  a  particular  exposition  of  the 
next  higher  and  finally  of  the  most  intellectual  and 
spiritual  religions ;  Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  and  Chris- 
tianity thus  taking  their  proper  place  after  those  re- 
ligions in  which  the  ideals  of  the  greatest  religions  ap- 
pear in  embryonic  form,  such  as  Zoroastrianism,  the 
religion  of  Greece,  of  Babylon,  and  of  Egypt. 


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America  Among  the  Nations 

By  H.  H.  POWERS 

Cloth,  i2tno,  $1.50 

u  One  of  the  most  interesting  books  appearing  for  ages  .  .  . 
honest  as  the  day  and  fascinating  as  a  mystery  novel." 

—  Chicago  Herald. 

"  A  timely  work  for  thinking  Americans.  .  .  .  Nowhere  is 
our  position  in  relation  to  other  nations  discussed  with  greater 
clearness  and  ability  than  in  Professor  Powers'  book." 

—  New  York  Herald. 

"  America  Among  the  Nations  "  is  an  interpretation  of 
our  relation  to  foreign  nations  in  terms  of  the  great  geo- 
graphical, biological,  and  psychic  forces  which  shape 
national  destiny.  The  author's  survey  of  American  im- 
perial development  is  a  startling  revelation,  not  only  of 
our  rapidly  advanced  territorial  frontiers,  but  of  the  still 
more  strikingly  shifted  frontiers  of  our  political  philosophy. 

He  devotes  the  first  part  of  his  text  to  a  consideration 
of  America  at  home,  taking  up  such  topics  as  The  First 
Americans,  The  Logic  of  Isolation,  The  Great  Expansion, 
The  Break  with  Tradition,  The  Aftermath  of  Panama, 
Pan-Americanism,  and  The  Dependence  of  the  Tropics. 
The  second  division  is  entitled  America  Among  the  World 
Powers,  and  considers  among  other  things :  The  Greater 
Powers,  The  Mongolian  Menace,  Greater  Japan,  Germany, 
The  Storm  Center,  The  Greatest  Empire,  The  Greatest 
Fellowship. 


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Professor  EDWARD  CHANNING'S 

History  of  the  United  States 

NOW  READY 

I  — The  Planting  of  a  Nation  in  the  New  World,  1000-1660 
II  —  A  Century  of  Colonial  History,  1660-1760 

III  —  The  American  Revolution,  1 761-1 789 

IV  —  Federalists  and  Republicans,  1789-1815 

The  first  four  volumes  of  Professor  Channing's  master  work  offer  a 
connected  account  of  the  period  of  American  colonization  and  of  the 
history  of  the  United  States  to  the  inauguration  of  President  Washing- 
ton. Volume  IV,  just  published,  covers  the  period  of  the  organization 
of  the  government  of  Washington  and  Hamilton,  following  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  Constitution.  The  quasi-war  with  France,  the  triumph  of 
Jeffersonian  republicanism,  and  the  long-drawn-out  commercial  conflict 
which  ended  with  the  War  of  1 812  are  among  the  topics  considered. 

Each  volume  is  attractively  b'ound  in  dark 
blue  cloth,  with  gilt  top;  price  of  each,  $2.75 

The  English  Historical  Review  writes  of  the  work : 

"  Many  as  are  the  histories  of  the  United  States,  Professor  Channing 
has  ample  justification  in  adding  another  to  the  list,  not  only  in  his  new 
point  of  view  but  in  his  exhaustive  knowledge.  His  narrative  flows  on 
so  smoothly  that  it  is  only  when  one  realizes  the  immense  mass  of  con- 
troversies which  he  settles  with  calm  common  sense,  the  thoroughness 
of  his  bibliography,  the  sanity  of  his  criticisms  on  the  hundreds  of 
authors  consulted,  that  one  grasps  the  fullness  of  his  erudition.  .  .  . 
From  the  conception  of  his  task  it  follows  that  the  English  background 
must  be  kept  in  view,  and  here  Professor  Channing  treads  with  the  same 
sureness.  His  accounts  of  English  religious  conditions  and  of  English 
local  government  in  the  seventeenth  century  are  alike  excellent.  .  .  . 
Early  colonial  history  is  both  complicated  and  controversial,  but  there 
are  few  slips  either  in  detail  or  perspective.  Between  the  mother  coun- 
try and  the  colonies  he  holds  the  scales  fair,  doing  justice  to  Great 
Britain  without  falling  into  the  exaggerated  imperialism  of  some  recent 
American  authors.  Though  his  heart  is  with  the  colonists,  he  does  not 
fail  to  point  out  their  weaknesses,  and  though  tracing  in  detail  the 
record  of  English  mismanagement,  he  rarely  exaggerates.  Yet  beneath 
this  reserve  there  is  at  times  a  glow  of  hidden  fires." 


Other  Volumes  in  Preparation 


? 


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14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


S0ct'65«ST 


■Rl rr 


OCT  34  1987 


JAN. 


m 


LOAN  DEPT. 


7     ;■  NUV 1  8  1387 


NOV  7-1966  7  6 


RECEIVED 


0CT?S-66-ii  AIV 

LOAN  DEPT. 


DEC  7  -  f  9gg  3  5 


RECEIVED 


DEC    7  '66  -7  PNI 


LD  21A-60J 

(F2 


il&EPT. 


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